(Second-Hand)Smoke Exposure Increases Risk of Diabetes, U.S. Study Shows

April 7 (Bloomberg) -- People who breathe second-hand smoke face a greater risk of developing diabetes, a new study said, the first time the disease has been linked to passive smoking.

About 17 percent of passive smokers in the study developed glucose intolerance compared with less than 12 percent of people who had no exposure to second-hand smoke, according to research published in tomorrow's issue of the British Medical Journal. As many as 22 percent of smokers had raised glucose intolerance, researcher Thomas Houston found.

``We identified passive tobacco exposure in never smokers as a new risk factor for glucose intolerance,'' wrote Houston, an associate professor of medicine at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Alabama, adding that policy makers may use the research as additional justification to reduce exposure to cigarette smoke.

The findings provide further evidence that second-hand smoke may affect health beyond the known risks of contributing to cancer and heart disease. Ireland, Norway, Italy and Sweden have banned smoking in enclosed public places such as bars and restaurants in recent years to cut exposure to second-hand smoke.

Houston studied the smoking habits of 4,572 men and women aged 18 years to 30 years and their glucose intolerance, a condition where the body can no longer produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar, 15 years later. Both active and passive smoking have an effect on glucose intolerance, Houston found.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=ag7kfjMqo.Fk&refer=canada#

That second-hand stuff will sure kill you! Faster than the first-hand stuff, it would seem...

Also glad I quit 3 years ago. Now if I can dump this ballast and figure out how to get away from HFCS...

It actually makes sense if you stop and think about it. I wonder how Big Tobacco will spin this one.

and start lecturing us on their right to blow smoke in our faces and make us sick.

And then to justify it with the fact that we all die sometime anyway.

:evilgrin:


I just prefer to die after riding a bike hundreds of thousands of healthy miles without sucking on the cigs and coughing up black goo.

:hi:

I'm always amazed when I see normally rational people go totally rabid when it comes to smoking. The hatred is astonishing and way out of proportion.

I've posted here for years and I've never once seen anyone post that they had the right to blow smoke in other people's faces. I have seen people claim with some justice that there is a lynch mob mentality going on that is kind of scary.

To pay in for decades and then croak just before they can collect.

Think of them as taking one for the team...and being annoying about it.

....was 17 - a few years now - and I was hypoglycemic since I was a kid - long before I started smoking.:eyes Pretty soon they'll be blaming smoking and second hand smoke for the sun not coming up in the morning, or for too much rain, or who know what else.:wtf:

Give me a break!!