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medpundit |
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Monday, April 05, 2004Evidence that living with a smoker can shorten your life has emerged from a study in New Zealand. The study, one of the largest ever done, looked at deaths among people aged 45 to 74 who completed census returns in 1981 and in 1996. Those who had never smoked but lived with people who did were 15 per cent more likely to die in the three years after each census than were those who had never smoked and lived with non-smokers. The original article is available here, but only in pdf form. The actual numbers aren't as impressive as the relative risk reported in the London Times and other media stories would have you believe. Here's what they found: From 1981 to 1984, men who were never exposed to tobacco smoke had a mortality rate of 1,530/100,000, or a mortalty rate of 1.5%. Men who had been exposed to someone else's tobacco smoke had a mortality rate of 1,684/100,000, or of 1.7% - only a 0.2% difference. For women during those years, the numbers were 1009/100,000 for those who were never exposed to tobacco smoke and 1050/100,000 for those who were exposed to second hand smoke. Both translate into a mortality rate of 1%. From 1996 to 1999, men who were never exposed to tobacco smoke had a mortality rate of 1025/100,000 or 1% and men who were exposed to second hand smoke had a mortality rate of 1198/100,000 or 1.2%. Again, a 0.2% difference. For some reason, women during this time period had more of a difference than the previous decade. Women with no history of tobacco smoke exposure had a mortality rate of 672/100,000 or 0.7%, but those who had exposure had a mortality rate of 855/100,000 or 0.9%. The authors call the increased mortality rate among those exposed to second-hand smoke "modest but consistent," although in the case of women, it isn't even consistent. And it's far too modest to justify Draconian anti-smoking laws. posted by Sydney on 4/05/2004 08:31:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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