Smoking and Cataracts.
Quitting helps - but not starting is better.
    A study report in a recent issue of American Journal of Epidemiology found that the risk of cataract formation decreases over time once and individual stops smoking. However, even after 20 years, the risk is not as low as for those who never smoked.
    Dr. June Weintraub and colleagues from Harvard Medical School examined data from thousands of participants in the Nurses Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. After adjusting for age and risk factors, including the number of cigarettes smoked per day, the data showed that smokers who quit 25 or more years earlier had 20% lower risk of cataract than current smokers, but neither group approached the lower risk associated with those who never smoked (RR=0.64). This was true regardless of the type of cataract studied.
    Dr. Weintraub observed that this supports the hypothesis that smoking causes irreversible damage to the lens.