LONDON, June 30 (UPI) -- British researchers have found the harmful effects of secondhand smoke may be much greater than previously thought, ABC News reported Wednesday.
Research conducted by a team at University College London and published in the British Medical Journal suggests inhaling someone else's tobacco smoke may increase the risk of heart disease by as much as 60 percent.
The study followed more than 2,000 nonsmokers for 20 years, measuring how much secondhand smoke they actually were inhaling.
Researchers checked their blood for levels of cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine found only in tobacco smoke.
They discovered nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke had twice as great a risk of heart disease as previously thought. If true, it implies that secondhand smoke may be responsible for as many as 80,000 heart attacks each year in the United States.
