Research

Fresh evidence of perils of smoking while pregnant
New research reveals that women who smoke while pregnant may cause permanent cardiovascular damage to their children, increasing the offspring’s risk for a stroke or heart attack. The Dutch study showed as young adults, children whose mother smoked during pregnancy, tended to have thicker walls of the carotid arteries in the neck. This thickness can be used to determine a person’s level of arthrosclerosis, the process in which deposits build up in the inner lining of an artery, posing an increase risk for a stroke or heart attack. For more information on the study, click here.

Quitting smoking reduces risk of lung cancer mortality by 70 percent
New research from the Asia-Pacific region confirms that cigarette smoking substantially increases the risk of dying from lung cancer in both Australia/New Zealand and Asia. The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology, followed 500,000 adults and reported the risk for dying of lung cancer to be twenty times higher among women who smoke compared with men who smoke. The study is the largest-ever of cardiovascular and other non-communicable diseases in the Asia region. Click here to read more.

Smoking in car ‘doubles asthma risk for kids’
New research from Australia suggests that children exposed to cigarette smoke in cars are more than twice as likely as other kids to develop asthma. The study examined surveys of parents and breathing tests from 1427 14-year-olds, finding that those 15 percent of children exposed to smoke in a vehicle had a 55 percent increased risk of recent wheezing problems and were 2.1 times more likely to have long-term asthma than children who were not exposed. Additionally, the same study found that 9 percent of children were exposed to smoke in the home. They also had a higher risk of respiratory problems than non-exposed kids, but their rates were lower than those exposed in the car.  The study was published in the Medical Journal of Australia. Click here for the press release.

Smoking linked with aging on skin that usually is not exposed to sunlight
New research reveals another link between cigarette smoking and skin damage, suggesting that smoking may be associated with a higher degree of aging on areas of skin that are not normally exposed to sunlight, such as skin on the inside of the upper arm. Researchers examined pictures of smokers’ and nonsmokers’ skin on the inside of the upper arm at baseline and one year later to determine the level of increase in the skin damage. Smokers were found to have more significant skin aging than nonsmokers. The article was published in the March issue of the journal Archives of Dermatology. Click here to read the press release.

Smoking lowers Parkinson’s disease risk
A new study adds to the previously reported evidence that smoking protects against Parkinson’s disease. The study, published in the journal Neurology, analyzed data including lifetime smoking history, from over 70,000 women and 60,000 men over 9 years. Compared to people who had never smoked, former smokers had a 22-percent lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease while current smokers had a 73-percent lower risk. The results were similar for both men and women. Click here to read more about the study.

Arteries benefit from smoking cessation
New research reveals that a smoker’s arteries can lose their tobacco-induced stiffness after quitting smoking. However, it can take them up to 10 years after quitting to get back to normal levels. Researchers measured 554 current smokers, ex-smokers, and never-smokers’ arterial stiffness. Current and ex-smokers of only one year had significantly higher stiffness measures than non-smokers. They found some improvement over time, but the arterial stiffness parameters only returned to normal levels after more than 10 years of smoking cessation. Click here to read more.

Pancreatic cancer, smoking linked
New research reveals another piece of the puzzle in the link between smoking and pancreatic cancer, explaining the mechanism by which healthy pancreatic cells turn cancerous. Researchers found that chemicals produced by the burning of tobacco products interfere with communication between the body’s cells. The research is the culmination of nearly 30 years of work at Michigan State University. Click here to read more.

Smoking may impair teens’ attention
New research reveals that teens may have more trouble paying attention if they smoke, especially if their mothers smoked during pregnancy. Researchers from Yale reported that exposure to tobacco smoke before birth or during adolescence may interfere with the development of attention skills. The study looked at 181 teens and categorized them based on whether they smoke and whether their mothers had smoked during pregnancy. The teens who did not smoke and were not exposed to maternal smoking scored the highest on attention tests, while teen smokers whose mothers had smoked during pregnancy scored worse on both visual and auditory tests. Click here to read more.

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