Passive Smoking Can Affect Non-Smokers Memory

Non-smokers who regularly breathe in secondhand smoke are at risk for memory damage, according to researchers from Northumbria University. This is the first study of its kind to investigate the relationship between exposure to other people’s cigarette smoking and everyday problems with memory. Psychologists Drs. Tom Heffernan and Terence O’Neil, both researchers at the Collaboration for Drug and Alcohol Research Group at Northumbria University, compared a group of current smokers with two groups of non-smokers. The first non-smoking group was regularly exposed to secondhand smoke and the second group was not. The group of non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke either lived with smokers or spent time with smokers, such as in a designated “smoking area,” and reported being exposed to second-hand smoke for an average of 25 hours a week for an average of four and a half years. All three groups were tested on time-based memory (remembering to carry out an activity after some time) and event-based memory (which refers to memory for future intentions and activities). Results showed that the non-smokers who had been exposed to secondhand smoke forgot almost 20 percent more in the memory tests than the non-smokers who had not been exposed. Both groups out-performed participants in the smoking group who forgot 30 percent more than those who were not exposed to secondhand smoking.