The findings, published in the latest online edition of the journal Addiction<\/em> is the first study to explore the relationship between exposure to other people’s smoke and everyday memory problems<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Dr Tom Heffernan and Dr Terence O’Neil, both 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 second-hand smoke and those who were not.<\/p>\n Those 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.<\/p>\n The three groups were tested on time-based memory (remembering to carry out an activity after some time) and event-based memory (which refers to memory for future intentions and activities).<\/p>\n Researchers found that the non-smokers who had been exposed to second-hand smoke forgot almost 20% more in the memory tests than those non-smokers not exposed<\/strong>. However, both groups out-performed the current smokers who forgot 30% more than those who were not exposed to second-hand smoking<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Dr Heffernan said: “According to recent reports by the World Health Organization, exposure to second-hand smoke can have serious consequences on the health of people who have never smoked themselves, but who are exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke.<\/p>\n “Our findings suggest that the deficits associated with second-hand smoke exposure extend to everyday cognitive function. We hope our work will stimulate further research in the field in order to gain a better understanding of the links between exposure to second-hand smoke, health problems and everyday cognitive function.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Northumbria University press release via ScienceDaily: Non-smokers who live with or spend time with smokers are damaging their memory, according to new research from Northumbria University. The findings,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,4],"tags":[266,170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6422"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6477,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6422\/revisions\/6477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/SmokingCessation.jpg\" "\\"smoking")
Non-smokers who live with or spend time with smokers are damaging their memory<\/strong>, according to new research from Northumbria University.<\/p>\n