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who quit smoking within a year after coronary artery bypass graft surgery prolong their life ex-pectancy by an average of 3 years, Dr. Don Poldermans said at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology. “This [information] is a prac-tical tool for physicians to use.... It may be the ultimate reason for the patient to quit smok-ing, ” observed Dr. Poldermans of Erasmus University, Rotter-dam, the Netherlands. It’s well accepted that smok-ing cessation after coronary revascularization or MI reduces mortality risk. Dr. Poldermans presented the first study to quantify this benefit in years of life saved. He reported on 30-year out-comes for 1,041 consecutive pa-tients who underwent venous CABG at the medical center in 1971-1980. A total of 551 were smokers at the time, of whom 43 % quit within the next year. The 10-year survival was 88% in the smoking cessation group, compared with 77 % in the per-sistent smokers. Survival at 15 and 30 years was 70 % and 19%, respectively, in the patients who had quit smoking, compared with 53 % and 11 % in those who did not. The average post-CABG life expectancy was 20 years for patients who quit smoking and 17 years for persistent smokers. Smokers who were younger than 50 years at the time of CABG and who quit smoking within the next year lived a