40% women lung cancer patients in Goa non-smokers, likely victims of passive smoking

Almost 40% of women in Goa who have lung cancer do not smoke themselves, which means it is likely that they are victims of `passive smoking’, an anti-tobacco NGO has said. The National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE) said yesterday that there has been a rise in the number of women in the state who smoke. The overall percentage of smokers in the state’s population has dwindled in the last three decades, it said. NOTE India president Dr Shekhar Salkar told reporters that almost 40% of the women diagnosed with…

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Non-Smokers too at Risk From Second-Hand Smoke

A ban on smoking in public places came into effect across India eight years ago — but India still remains home to 12 per cent of the worlds smokers and they with their second-hand smoke pose a threat to those who don’t smoke. Healthy non-smokers exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke are at an increased risk of developing coronary atherosclerosis, warns a senior cardiologist here, citing earlier findings which new studies have bolstered. Investigators have observed a dose-response relationship between second-hand smoke exposure and atherosclerosis as documented by CT angiography, said…

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