The Harvard team, led by Dr. Ichiro Kawachi, tracked 32,000 nonsmoking female nurses from 1982 until 1992. During the study, 127 suffered nonfatal heart attacks and 25 more had fatal ones. The researchers didn’t measure the smoke in anyone’s environment. But women who reported “occasional” exposure at the start of the study experienced 58 percent more heart-attack risk than those with no exposure and the risk was 91 percent higher among women reporting “regular” exposure. Other risk factors, such as diabetes, hypertension and advanced age, didn’t account for the pattern. And the new findings are consistent with earlier ones showing that ambient smoke can damage arteries, lower HDL (good cholesterol) and promote blood clots.
The Harvard report comes on the eve of a trial pitting cigarette makers against thousands of nonsmoking flight attendants who seek damages for illnesses they attribute to their years of on-the-job exposure. The Tobacco Institute wasn’t commenting last week, but the Harvard study looks like bad news for the cigarette companies and for anyone breathing around their products.
