All forms of tobacco cause heart attacks

Washington, Aug 20 (UNI) Smoked or chewed, first hand or second hand, all kinds of tobacco use cause heart attacks worldwide, a huge international study says.

The study, undertaken by Dr Koon K Teo, MB, PhD, of the University of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and his colleagues, combed through data for evidence that tobacco use affects heart attack risk and their findings have now been published in the latest issue of The Lancet.

Their findings are based on data of more than 27,000 people in 52 countries.

''Tobacco use is one of the most important cause of heart attack globally, especially in men,''Teo and colleagues conclude. ''All forms of tobacco use, including different types of smoking and chewing tobacco and inhalation of second-hand smoke, should be discouraged.'' The findings of the study shows that people who smoke, triple their risk of heart attack -- and increase that risk by 5.6% for every daily cigarette.

Light smokers who quit have little extra risk of heart attack three to five years after quitting. Heavy smokers who quit see a rapid decrease in heart attack risk, but still have some extra risk even 20 years after quitting.

Chewing tobacco more than doubles heart attack risk. Chewing and smoking increases risk more than fourfold. Just one to seven hours of secondhand-smoke exposure per week ups heart attack risk by 24%.

More than 21 hours a week of secondhand smoke exposure increases heart attack risk by 62%. Switching to a water pipe won't help. It still increases the risk of heart attack.

The study says that if this makes people think that just cutting back on smoking will help, they will have to think again. No level of tobacco use was found to be safe. This means that secondhand smoke may be even more dangerous than previously thought.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Harvard researchers Sarah A. Rosner and Meir J. Stampfer, MD, DrPH, note that smoking is predicted to kill a billion people in this century. The Teo study, they argue, ''should stimulate a redoubling of our efforts to rid the planet of the scourge of smoking.'' UNI XC SY VP1045