Smoking tied to memory loss

Non-smokers who live with or spend time with people who smoke are damaging their memory,a new study has found. The study by Northumbria University is a first of its kind to explore the relationship between exposure to other peoples smoke and everyday memory problems. Dr Tom Heffernan and Dr Terence ONeil, researchers at the Collaboration for Drug and Alcohol Research Group at Northumbria University, compared a group of current smokers with two groups of non-smokers,those who were regularly exposed to secondhand smoke and those who were not. Others exposed to second-hand smoke either lived with smokers or spent time with smokers,for example in a designated smoking area, and reported being exposed to second-hand smoke for an average of 25 hours a week for an average of four and a half years. Researchers found that non-smokers who had been exposed to secondhand smoke forgot 20% more in the memory tests.