New research (1) funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and published today in Addiction journal, shows that people living with someone who smokes continue to be at risk of the harmful effects of passive smoking.

Researchers at University College London and St George's, University of London measured recent exposure to tobacco smoke in non-smoking middle-aged men taking part in the British Regional Heart Study by measuring the levels of cotinine - a compound carried in the blood - at two time points 20 years apart. A blood cotinine level above 0.7ng/mL is associated with a 40% increase in the risk of a heart attack (2), and other studies have suggested that even a level of 0.2ng/mL may increase the risk (3). The researchers found that while in 1978-80, 73% of men had a cotinine level above 0.7ng/mL, by 1998-2000 that proportion had fallen to 17%.

However, despite the number of non-smoking men at risk having fallen, half of those who still had a high cotinine level (above 0.7 ng/ml) in 1998-2000 lived with a partner who smoked. Non-smoking men who had a partner who smoked had average cotinine levels of 1.39ng/mL, almost twice the level associated with an increased risk of a heart attack. Their cotinine levels were nearly eight times higher than the cotinine levels of men whose partner did not smoke.

During the period the study looked at, national data shows that the prevalence of smoking amongst adults across the UK declined from 40% to 27% and the number of cigarettes consumed by smokers fell from 114 to 97 per week…