A medical professor said Thursday that more than one million Koreans have died of smoking-related diseases since 1981.

In a recent study, Jee Sun-ha, professor of epidemiology and health promotion at the Graduate School of Public Health at Yonsei University, said that around 913-thousand Koreans died of smoking-related diseases between 1981 and 2007.

He estimated that the number had exceeded the one million mark this year.

Compared to non-smokers, men who smoke are found to be six and a half times more likely to have laryngeal cancer, four-point-six times more likely to have lung cancer, one-point-seven times more likely to have heart diseases, and one-point-six times more likely to suffer a stroke.

Female smokers had four-point-two times higher risk of getting ovarian cancer and other diseases.