ASH Australia media release                                        June 8, 2006

Tobacco smoke a bone-breaker for everyone: studies

Active and passive smoke harms young & old, male & female bones

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Tobacco smoke weakens bones and increases the risk of breaking them – irrespective of age or gender, according to new studies presented this week to an international conference.

The International Osteoporosis Foundation World Congress in Toronto, Canada has been told:

• Three new studies – two of Swedish and one of Chinese subjects* – have found that smoking hastens the erosion of men's bones, not just those of women as previously thought. 

• The Chinese study of  over 14,000 men and women shows for the first time that even secondhand smoke can significantly increase the risk for osteoporosis and fractures – probably by altering the levels of oestrogen, a key hormone in both male and female bone health. The highest impact was on pre-menopausal women, whose secondhand smoke exposure trebled their risk of osteoporosis and more than doubled their risk of fracture.

• One of the Swedish studies also shows the impact not just on the elderly but on young men, in its examination of more than a thousand men aged 18-20.

Osteoporosis is one of the world's most common and debilitating diseases, causing bones to become porous and break easily. The result is pain, can be severe incapacity and in many cases, death. One out of three women and one out of five men over fifty will experience osteoporotic fractures.

Says Anne Jones, Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Australia:
“Although government budgets this week include dire warnings about the blowout in health costs caused by an ageing population and a shrinking tax base, reforms to prevent diseases in the first place are yet to be fully implemented.”

ASH is urging governments to reject pressure from tobacco friendly industry groups – hotels, clubs and tobacco retailers – and accelerate plans to reduce smoking rates to 10% or less before the end of the decade and to eliminate secondhand smoke from crowded public places.

* Studies by  Hsu YH et al (conference abstract  P104SU),  Lorentzon M et al (abstract OC31);
and Mellstrom D et al (abstract P117MO);  IOF World Congress on Osteoporosis at  www.osteofound.org/wco/2006/

Comment:  Anne Jones, CEO, ASH Australia   ph. (02) 9334-1876   m. 0417-227-879

Media inquiries:   Stafford Sanders   ph. (02) 9334-1823    m. 0412-070-194  

Page last updated 8/6/06