Scientist Who Linked Smoking, Cancer Dies

Sir Richard Doll, the British scientist who first established a link between smoking and lung cancer, died Sunday at age 92, Oxford University said.

This is a Oct. 7, 1987 file photo of Sir Richard Doll addressing a press conference at Imperial Cancer Research Fund premises in London. Doll, the British scientist who first established a link between smoking and lung cancer, died Sunday July 24, 2005 at age 92, Oxford University said. (AP Photo/PA, File) (AP)

The epidemiologist died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford after a short illness, said the university, where Doll worked at its Imperial Cancer Research Center. The exact cause of death was not immediately released.

Doll's seminal 1950 study, which he wrote with Austin Bradford Hill, showed that smoking was "a cause, and a major cause" of lung cancer.

Doll remained active up to his death, releasing a follow-up study to the 1954 report in 2004 that showed at least half, and perhaps as many as two-thirds, of people who begin smoking in their youth are eventually killed by the habit.

There was no immediate word on survivors or funeral arrangements, reported AP.