Passive smokers, who consume no cigarettes but breathe the smoke of others, have a high risk of deafness, according to a new study. The authors examined to 3,300 U.S. adults aged between 20 and 69 years, classified as passive smoking after measuring the concentrations of cotinine, a by-product of nicotine in his blood. The data revealed that 14% of those frequently exposed to tobacco smoke lost hearing at low frequencies and stockings. And nearly half (46%) had lost audition for the high frequencies. It seems that the desventajes of tobacco not only focused on problems always, but that in addition, and as these studies reveal, the smoke may cause deafness, even though the receiver was a smoker passive (i.e., it coexists with a smoker or often sucks the tobacco smoke) experts believe that tobacco smoke may affect blood flow in the small vessels of the eardepriving oxygen to this body.
The damage caused by tobacco in hearing are different from those caused by exposure to noise or old age. Hearing loss could be added to the list of health consequences associated with exposure to tobacco smoke, the authors conclude. The study has been published in the journal Tobacco Control.
