Tobacco may cause irreversible blindness: AIIMS Doctors
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New Delhi: Tobacco not only causes cancer, its prolonged consumption also may also lead to blindness, and often such cases are irreversible, doctors at AIIMS said.
They also said studies have shown that those who smoke tobacco, significantly increase their risk of developing cataract compared to non-smokers.
Smoking or chewing tobacco over five to 10 years affects the optic nerve which may lead to visual loss, the doctors said.
"Often such cases of blindness are irreversible. People know that smoking and chewing of tobacco causes heart disease and cancer, but vision loss and other eye problems due to tobacco are not widely known," said Dr Atul Kumar, Chief of Dr R P Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences in AIIMS.
He said of the total number of blindness cases reported at the centre annually, around five per cent of those are due to tobacco consumption.
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