Docs should ask heart patients about second-hand smoke

Researchers want everyone, healthcare professionals and non-smokers, talking about second-hand smoke. - EPA

Not all heart disease patients know that second-hand smoke is bad for them – and not all doctors are asking them if they live with a smoker, says a new study.

“Physicians have not been trained to ask patients routinely about second-hand smoke exposure,” says co-author Dr Nancy A. Rigotti of the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. This is a gap in practice that needs to be addressed, she says.