The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a recent transient about how smokers develop age-related macular degeneration and the way people living with them even have the identical risk for early vision loss.
In a news release posted on its website Thursday, the WHO highlighted how people living with tobacco users are twice as more likely to develop vision problems from second-hand smoke. Meanwhile, smokers stand to develop age-related vision loss as much as 5.5 years sooner than non-smokers.
“Smoking increases your risk of developing serious eye conditions and everlasting sight loss. Quitting smoking and having regular eye tests might help improve eye health and forestall avoidable sight loss,” the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness head of data management, Jude Stern, said.
The agency partnered with the WHO in developing the brand new transient, which also found the increased risk of tobacco users developing cataracts.
In accordance with the complete report on tobacco use and vision loss published by WHO earlier this month, around 2.2 billion people worldwide have a vision impairment. Of those, 1 billion have a vision problem which are preventable.
Amongst different eye conditions, cataract is taken into account the leading reason for vision loss within the elderly because it affects 65.2 million people globally. Based on scientific data, tobacco use increases the chance of developing cataracts. Nonetheless, e-cigarettes were also found to be a risk factor.
The report indicated that e-cigarette flavors could increase the production of free radicals that damage DNA and could lead on to the formation of cataracts. E-cigarette use has also been linked to reduced eye blood flow, retinal function alteration, and even eye cancer.
Given the risks, the WHO strongly discouraged the usage of tobacco and e-cigarettes to assist address vision loss and cataract problems related to the substances.
“WHO urges everyone not to make use of tobacco and e-cigarettes to guard their overall health, including eye health,” said Vinayak Prasad, the top of the No Tobacco Unit on the WHO.