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"Smoking can blind you"

Jo Revill

Finding of European Eye Study.

CIGARETTE PACKETS should carry warnings that smoking causes blindness, doctors will argue this week as a new study shows the habit can badly damage eyesight.

A European study is set to show the leading cause of blindness — age-related macular degeneration — is directly attributable to smoking in more than one in four cases. Further, clouding of the eye lens occurs in smokers 10 to 15 years earlier than in non-smokers.

A report, so far unpublished, on 5,000 patients across the EU — the European Eye Study — shows that 27 per cent of them had eye disease directly attributable to smoking. With macular degeneration, damage occurs because chemicals in tobacco affect the metabolism of the retina and bring about a premature ageing of the eye.

People risk gradually losing their central vision and could go completely blind. Some people do not lose their sight entirely, but find they can no longer read or drive. It mostly affects people over 60, but in some cases where there are genetic factors it can occur in middle age.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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