Passive smoking, would have related to dementia

The first large-scale study demonstrated the relationship between exposure to passive smoking and cognitive problems, according to researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, University of Cambridge and the University of Michigan, who have published.

Thus the results of the first large-scale study indicate that snuff second-hand smoke exposure can cause dementia and other neurological problems.

They have already identified possible links between active smoking and cognitive decline and previous findings have suggested that exposure to environmental smoke snuff is linked to poor cognitive performance in children and adolescents.

However, this is the first such study that links second-hand smoke exposure is involved in cognitive impairment in adult nonsmokers.

The research team examined saliva samples from nearly 5,000 adult nonsmokers over 50 years using data from 1998, 1999 and 2001, Health Survey and England and later, participants took part in the English Longitudinal Study of Aging .

In the test saliva samples for cotinine, a product of nicotine that remains in the saliva about 25 hours after exposure to environmental smoke snuff.

Those who participated in the study also provided a detailed history of smoking and those who had never smoked or were former smokers, were assessed separately.

Setting the neuropsychological tests were used to assess brain function and cognitive decline, these are focused on the role of memory, calculation and verbal fluency.