New Research Shows Second-Hand Smoke Raises Diabetes Risk
Active and passive smoking and development of glucose intolerance among young adults in a prospective cohort: CARDIA study BMJ Online First
A study published on bmj.com this week shows for the first time that breathing other people’s smoke raises the risk of developing glucose intolerance, the precursor to diabetes.
The US research also shows that overall, white Americans are more susceptible to this effect than African - Americans.
Women Now Live Longer than Men, Even in the Poorest Countries
2006 is likely to be the first year in human history when - across almost all the world - women can expect to outlive men, say researchers in this week’s BMJ.
The trend towards this remarkable achievement will probably be confirmed this week in the 2006 world health report.
“We tend to forget that in many countries of the world women could expect, until recently, to live fewer years than men and that maternal death in particular remains a big killer,” write Danny Dorling and colleagues. In Europe, men last outlived women in the Netherlands in 1860 and in Italy in 1889. Elsewhere females’ life expectancy has long exceeded males’: in Sweden since 1751, Denmark since 1835, England and Wales since 1841.
Syria breaks taboo on violence against women
Syria has broken a taboo by presenting a high profile study on violence against women, which found that one in four married women gets beaten—usually by her husband or father.
The study, released this week by the state-run General Union of Women and funded by United Nations Development Fund for Women, sheds light on the nature and extent of violence against women in Syria.
It also coincides with calls for a campaign to raise awareness of the problem.
