New Study links ETS with risk of a stroke
08/17/99
A non-smoker's risk of having a stroke may go up to 82 percent with exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS), according to the New Zealand Auckland Stroke Study.
The study, published in the magazine Tobacco Control, also showed that smokers are four times more likely to have a stroke than non-smokers and women are more vulnerable than men.
"This study provides compelling evidence about the need to strengthen tobacco control as a powerful means of reducing the high burden of stroke worldwide,'' said Dr. Ruth Bonita, the senior author of the report.
In the past, studies have shown that passive smoking can cause an increase in lung cancer and heart disease in non-smokers but this research is among the first to link environmental tobacco smoke with strokes, which kill up to 4.2 million people worldwide each year.
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