By William J. Cromie

Gazette Staff

Most people know by now that breathing other people's cigarette smoke isn't good for their hearts. But it's worse than most of us thought, according to a Harvard study released this week.

Exposure to secondhand smoke at work or in the home almost doubles the risk for nonsmokers of heart disease. The study was done on women but the finding applies equally to men.

"The strong association we found between heart disease and passive smoke suggests that 30,000 to 60,000 deaths each year from heart disease could be attributable to passive smoke," says Ichiro Kawachi, assistant professor of health and social behavior at the School of Public Health (SPH).

This is a much greater effect than previously believed, and it will probably have an impact on public policies and lawsuits involving smoking.

Kawachi and his colleagues at SPH and the Medical School tracked for 10 years a group of 32,046 nurses who never smoked. From 1982 to 1992, 152 of these women suffered heart attacks, 25 of them fatal. The findings were reported Tuesday in Circulation, published by the American Heart Association.

Women who said they were exposed regularly to secondhand smoke at home or at work had a 91 percent higher risk for heart disease, and an 88 percent increased risk for heart attack. For those who reported only occasional exposure, the added risk was 58 percent and 64 percent, respectively. These increases were compared to nonsmokers not exposed to secondhand smoke.

Kawachi and colleagues made the necessary calculation to rule out the possibility that the elevated risks came from high blood pressure, diet, lack of exercise, or other factors. Even though women in the study worked mainly in hospitals, many of those institutions allowed smoking in various areas between 1982 and 1992.

Just as smokers can reduce their risk of heart disease by quitting, so those exposed to secondhand smoke can get relief by eliminating secondhand smoke at work and home. Therefore, these findings should add fuel to a proposal by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to ban smoking in all workplaces nationwide. At present, such rules vary from city to city. The conclusions will also play a role in lawsuits such as one being brought against tobacco companies by flight attendants.