Television kills - or at least it shortens your life by 22 minutes for every hour you spend glued to the screen.
The unexpectedly lethal impact of watching the box is revealed as latest figures suggest we are spending more time in front of the screen than ever. Viewing rates hit a new high in the first half of 2011, averaging four hours and three minutes a day, according to the TV marketing body Thinkbox.
Television watching is a sedentary activity which is known to be harmful to health and is distinct from getting too little exercise. But a new study suggests its damaging effects may even rank alongside those from smoking and obesity. The study includes bad news for advertisers: it found that if you get up during the commerical breaks and run around, you may be able to ameliorate television's worst effects.
Researchers who studied television viewing habits in Australia calculated that people who watch for an average of six hours a day shorten their life expectancy by almost five years.
They based their calculations on data on the link between television viewing and death from the Australian diabetes, obesity and lifestyle study which involved 11,000 adults aged 25 and over. Applying these findings to the whole population over 25, who are estimated to have watched 9.8 billion hours of TV in 2008, they concluded that it accounted for 286,000 years of life lost - equivalent to 22 minutes for each hour watched. By comparison, smoking one cigarette is estimated to shorten life expectancy by 11 minutes - equivalent to half an hour of TV watching.