Exposure to secondhand smoke raises the risk of diabetes

Apr 10 2006

According to a new study, exposure to secondhand smoke can raise the risk of developing diabetes.

In a study, by researchers from Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Alabama, have identified passive tobacco exposure in people who have never smoked as a new risk factor for diabetes, a condition where the body is unable to synthesize sugar due to absence of or sluggish action of insulin.

Diabetes affects the quality of life to a major extent, and as many as 20.8 million in the United States are affected.

The research also found that white Americans in general are more susceptible to this effect than African-Americans.

Thomas Houston, the lead author of the study says this is the first time the relationship between tobacco and diabetes has been established.

The researchers monitored 4,572 smokers between the ages of 18 and 30 and found after a follow-up of 15 years that smoking as well as exposure to tobacco smoke increased the chances of developing diabetes.

The results showed that 22 per cent of smokers developed glucose intolerance as against 12 per cent of those who were non-smokers and were not exposed to secondhand smoke.

Possibly more disturbing was that 17 per cent of those who were not smokers but were exposed to secondhand smoke also developed diabetes, a higher figure than the 14 per cent of diabetics who were once smokers but subsequently quit.

Houston says they found that tobacco exposure was associated with the development of glucose intolerance over a 15 year period, with an apparent dose-response effect.

He says the findings support a role for both active and passive smoking in the development of glucose intolerance in young adulthood.

Earlier studies have shown a link between passive smoking and breathing problems and lung cancer and the researchers explain that those breathing second-hand smoke are exposed to many toxins, as secondhand smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancers.

For smokers every increase of 10 pack years of smoking, increases the risk of developing glucose intolerance by 18 per cent.

Many experts say the research presents yet another reason for banning smoking in public places, and the risk of blindness, heart disease and amputation that can be caused by Type 2 diabetes should be enough to dissuade people from smoking.

According to World Health Organization statistics, around 171 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes, a figure that is predicted to rise in the near future due to obesity and inactive lifestyle.

The study is published in the British Medical Journal.