New Link In Cigs, Cataracts
Newcastle Herald
Friday August 20, 1999
NEW findings on the link between cataracts and smoking added weight to calls for cigarette packets to carry warnings about blindness, a leading eye researcher said yesterday.
Professor Hugh Taylor, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne, said a population-based study of 5000 people in Victoria showed smoking was a leading cause of cataracts.
It is the first time that the amount of cataracts attributable to cigarettes has been quantified in Australia.
`Cataract is very common and everyone gets it by the time they reach the age of 90 years,' Professor Taylor said.
He said the study showed that after controlling all other risk factors, about 10% of cataracts were attributable to smoking.
The results were compelling when added to data on smoking and age-related macular degeneration ? the most common cause of blindness ? published in the Medical Journal of Australia .
© 1999 Newcastle Herald
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