"Half of the smokers continue smoking as they feel doing so within limits does not lead to health issues," the survey, 'ICICI Lombard Smoking Habits 2013', said.
A large portion of respondents (77 per cent) felt that smoking or limited puffing of cigarettes will not have any adverse impact on their health.
The survey had a sample size of 914 habitual smokers from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore in the 18-35 age-group, who smoke at least once a day.
The survey revealed that around 67 per cent of the smokers started the habit between the age of 16 and 20 years.
"Friends or peers is the most important influencer to start smoking (87 per cent). Another key factor is work pressure", the survey said.
While Mumbai leads the pack with 32 per cent (of the respondents there) smoking on an average 7-10 cigarettes a day, Kolkata has 29 per cent puffing out 4-6 cigarettes a day.
Bangalore has 43 per cent of respondents smoking 2-3 cigarettes a day on an average and Delhi has the lowest with 35 per cent limiting their average consumption to just one stick a day.
A large number of smokers in Delhi (29%) and Bangalore (31%) felt a counsellor with regular monitoring will help them quit the habit.
As to the claim analysis done by ICICI Lombard for the last two years, the company said 5 per cent of the total cancer claims were tobacco-related.
"Of these, 75 per cent were claims made by male customers", it said.
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