PEDIATRICS Vol. 84 No. 6 December 1989, pp. A23
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ADOLESCENTS BEWARE! SMOKERS MAY BE AT RISK FOR OSTEOPOROSIS

As if smokers didn't have enough to worry about, a new study suggests that smoking may promote osteoporosis, a disease that afflicts millions of elderly Americans and results in bones that are easily broken.

In research at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, scientists fed mice foods laced with cadmium, an element found in tobacco. The animals, especially pregnant and post-menopausal ones, experienced a loss of bone mass similar to that caused by osteoporosis.

The researchers say it is "reasonable" to conclude that smoking may promote osteoporosis because the amount of cadmium in the animals' blood was "similar" to levels typically found in the blood of smokers. They also say the connection between the disease and cadmium has been suspected since the late 1940's, when a group of women in Japan developed brittle bones after an industrial accident exposed them to high levels of the element.