Smoking spells double trouble

Smoking doubles the risk of age-related macular degeneration, according to a new study.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine questioned 4,000 Britons over the age of 75 about their smoking habits, alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease.

The team discovered that twice as many smokers suffered from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) than non-smokers.

However, Professor Astrid Fletcher and colleagues also found that people who had stopped smoking more than 20 years earlier had no increased risk of developing the illness.

Based on the findings, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, they estimate that smoking is likely to have been linked to up to 30,000 cases of the disease in Britain.

'An increased risk of AMD, which is the most commonly occurring cause of blindness in the United Kingdom, is yet another reason for people to stop smoking, and for governments to develop public health campaigns against this hazard,' she said.