Smoking more than 20 cigarettes daily could damage eyesight says researchers

A new study, conducted by a Rutgers researcher, finds that smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day could damage vision and may cause overall colour vision loss.

According to the study, the team compared 71 participants who had smoked fewer than 15 cigarettes across their whole lifetimes, with 63 people who smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day. The participants were all in good health, had normal or corrected vision and were aged between 25 and 45 years.

The findings indicated significant changes in the smokers’ red- green and blue- yellow colour vision which suggested that consuming substance with neurotoxic chemicals, such as those in cigarettes, may cause over all vision loss.

The team also found that heavy smokers had a reduced ability to discriminate contrasts and colours when compared to the non- smokers.

Steven Silverstein, Lead Author says studies have previously linked cigarette smoking to brain lesions and an increased risk of conditions such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), lens inflammation and retinal ischemia. However, few studies have linked smoking to impaired colour vision

“Our results indicate that excessive use of cigarettes, or chronic exposure to their compounds, affects visual discrimination, supporting the existence of overall deficits in visual processing with tobacco addiction,” Silverstein said.

Although the research did not give a physiological explanation for the results, Silverstein said that since nicotine and smoking harm the vascular system, the study suggests they also damage blood vessels and neurons in the retina.

Silverstein said the findings also suggest that research into visual processing impairments in other groups of people, such as those with schizophrenia who often smoke heavily, should take into account their smoking rate or independently examine smokers versus non-smokers.

 

ANTHONIA OBOKOH