Second Hand Smoke leads to Diabetes risk

Smoke exposure raises diabetes risk

By Chantal Britt

Bloomberg News

People who breathe secondhand smoke face a greater risk of developing diabetes, a new study says, 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 secondhand smoke, according to research published in Saturday'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 secondhand 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 secondhand smoke.
Houston studied the smoking habits of 4,572 men and women ages 18 to 30 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.
The chemical reactions that produce secondhand smoke mean that passive smokers may breathe in more toxins than actual smokers. These toxins may affect the pancreas, the organ that produces insulin, Houston said.
Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including 69 known carcinogens such as formaldehyde, lead, arsenic, benzene, and radioactive polonium 210. Passive smoking has been linked to lung cancer, heart disease, sudden infant death syndrome, bronchitis and asthma.
About 20.8 million Americans, 7 percent of the population, had diabetes in 2005, according to the National Institutes of Health.