Second Hand Smoking Damages Bones

A new study carried out by US and Chinese researchers shows that second hand smoking highly increases the risk of bone disorders, especially osteoporosis. The research also found that exposure to tobacco smoke makes risk of osteoporosis three times more likely in pre-menopausal women. However, bone diseases affect both women and men.

Experts at Harvard School of Public Health investigated bone health of more than 14,000 men and women coming from China's rural regions. Women involved in the study were both pre and post - menopausal. None of the subjects had a smoking history. Namely, they lived under the same roof with one or more regular smokers.

Experts measured the volunteers' hip bone mineral density and recorded their non-spine fractures history. The findings showed that pre-menopausal women who shared the same living place with one smoker were two times more likely to develop osteoporosis than women that lived with non smokers. Pre-menopausal women who lived with two or more regular smokers were three times more likely to get to suffer sooner or later from the same bone condition.

The second-hand women in the research also presented a 2.6 times higher risk of non-spine fractures as compared to women who were not exposed to cigarette smoke.

Another study conducted by researchers at the Gothenburg University investigated the health condition of 1,000 men who were 18 to 20 of age. The results showed that the smokers' density of bones in the spine, hip and all the body was reduced when compared to non-smokers' bones. Researchers also explained that smoking primarily damages the cortical bone in the body, by making it less thick and decreasing its solidity and density. On the overall, mineral density in hip bones was 5% lower in smokers than in non-smokers.

"We know that smoking is becoming a much more significant risk factor for predicting whether you will break a bone because of osteoporosis due to the increasing amount of research being done into this area. However, our understanding of the effects of passive smoking on bone health is not quite so well researched so this study is an interesting addition to our cumulative knowledge of what smoking does to our skeletons. It does all add up to the fact that smoking is just plain bad for bones, whether you smoke yourself or if you live with someone who smokes," a spokeswoman for the UK's National Osteoporosis Society stated for BBC News.