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All Forms Of Tobacco Harmful, Study Finds

Smoking, Chewing, Pipes, Cigars, All Raise Heart Attack Risk

August 21, 2006

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You can smoke it, chew it, sniff it, even breath it as second-hand smoke and tobacco is still harmful to your heart, a new study finds.

The research, reported in the latest issue of The Lancet, says any use of tobacco can triple the risk of a heart attack.

Chewing tobacco has essentially the same elevated heart attack risk as smoking cigarettes, the researchers said. Puffing on a cigar or pipe is no less risky, according to their study.

The researchers said they found that even light smokers doubled their risk of a heart attack. The risk increased by more than 5 percent for every additional cigarette per day.

For those who quit, their health odds improve considerably. The overall heart risk associated with former smoking fell within three years of quitting. For smokers who quit after 20 years, the risk declines sharply.

Chewing tobacco, increasingly promoted as a safe alternative, is no better than smoking tobacco, the researchers wrote. It increased the heart risk more than two-fold, and what’s even worse researchers say, people who both chewed and smoked tobacco had four times the heart risk.

Finally, the findings suggested that exposure to second-hand smoke increased the heart attack risk in both non-smokers and smokers. Secondhand smoke was associated with a graded increase in risk related to the amount of exposure.

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