THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 9, 1996 TAG: 9610090409
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: 20 lines
New research gives smokers one more reason to quit: Pack-a-day-or-more puffers double their likelihood of developing the most common cause of blindness among the elderly.
Age-related macular degeneration, a usually untreatable affliction, impairs the vision of an estimated 1.7 million Americans and causes more new cases of blindness than any other ailment among people age 65 or older, according to the government.
The more people smoke and the longer they smoke, the higher their risk of developing macular degeneration, according to two new studies in today's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. by CNB