Non-smokers who live with or spend excessive time around individuals who smoke experience memory problems, according to new research by scientists at Northumbria University (UK).
The researchers studied the memory function of passive smokers who either lived with a smoker or had been exposed for an average of 25 hours a week to tobacco smoke for almost five years , and compared it with active and non-active smokers. smokers without contact with cigarette smoke. The research revealed that the so-called "second-hand" smoke affected the memory of passive smokers, who forgot by 20% in the tests that some of them were not exposed to tobacco.
"Our results suggest that memory deficits associated with passive exposure to tobacco smoke affect the cognitive skills we need to function in everyday life," conclude Tom Heffernan and his colleagues in the journal Addiction .
