The exhibition at passive smokingeven to a limited extent, is associated with a greater risk of occurrence atrial fibrillationa serious heart rhythm disorder, according to research presented at the scientific conference of the European Society of Cardiology.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder worldwide and it is estimated that one in three Europeans will develop the condition during their lifetime. People with atrial fibrillation are five times more likely to have a stroke than their healthy peers.

A total of 400,493 adults aged 40-69 who used the UK National Health System for any reason and were registered with UK Biobank were included in the analysis.

Smokers and those who already had atrial fibrillation were excluded from the study.

Participants were asked about the number of hours they had been exposed to other people’s smoke in a typical week during the past year, either at home or in other settings. 21% of participants had been exposed to secondhand smoke in the previous year with an average exposure of 2.2 hours per week. During a mean follow-up of 12.5 years, atrial fibrillation developed in 6% of participants.

The researchers analyzed the association between exposure to secondhand smoke and the occurrence of atrial fibrillation after adjusting for factors that could potentially influence this association, such as age, sex, ethnicity, body mass index, daily alcohol consumption , physical activity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood lipids and socioeconomic status.

It found that the group exposed to secondhand smoke had a 6% higher risk of having an atrial fibrillation event compared to the group not exposed. The risk increased in homes, workplaces and outdoors. Also, each increase in the duration of weekly passive smoking was associated with an even greater risk of atrial fibrillation. For example, 7.8 hours of passive smoking per week was associated with an 11% greater chance of developing a heart rhythm disorder compared to zero passive smoking.

“According to the study, once you are exposed to secondhand smoke, the chance of developing atrial fibrillation starts to increase with the risk escalating significantly as the exposure time increases. “The finding that secondhand smoke is harmful not only indoors but also in outdoor environments highlights the importance of smoking bans to protect public health,” notes study author Kyung-Yeon Lee from the National University Hospital of Seoul, Republic of Korea.