More than 80 million people in China will die in the next 25 years from lung disease, a new study confirms. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health say the deaths would be attributed to smoking habits and the common practice of burning coal and wood for cooking and heating.

The study, which is published online on Saturday by the British journal The Lancet looked at a 30-year period, spanning the last five and the next 25. More than half of Chinese men population smoke and more than 70 percent of Chinese households use solid fuels that are a major source of indoor air pollution, the study says.

Researchers believe that indoor pollution will account for 82 percent of the likely 65 million deaths in China from respiratory disease from 2003 to 2033. Respiratory disease is already a leading cause of death in China. The rest 75 percent of the probable 18 million deaths would be from lung cancer, the study reports.

The report urges China to control tobacco through taxation, health education and advertising bans to curb the death rate. It also stresses on the need of the south-Asian nation to switch to clean fuel.