Study finds link between smoking and TB

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Smoking increases the risk of TB in developing countries through creating indoor air pollution.
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease affecting the lungs which causes around two million deaths a year. Most of these deaths now occur in developing countries, where smoking is also increasingly common. Heating homes with coal and biomass fuels also contributes to indoor air pollution in these countries.

A new study from Harvard School of Public Health reviews the link between smoking, passive smoking, indoor air pollution and TB. All these factors increase the risk of TB, they say. Smokers have around twice the risk of TB compared to non-smokers. Since smoking is on the increase in many developing countries, tobacco control could be a key measure in the control of TB. This review covered 38 research studies and, say the Harvard researchers, point to the need for further and larger studies on the role indoor air pollution plays in TB.

Source
Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine online 16th January 2007

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