Researchers already discovered that smoking increases the risk of tuberculosis, but a recent study from Hong Kong shows that the people who are exposed to someone else’s tobacco smoke are exposed to the same risk.

During the study, 15,486 non smoking women between the ages of 65 and 74 years were monitored. All of them lived with their husband and one in four women was living with a smoker. At the end of the monitoring period 117 women developed active tuberculosis.

Results show that the women who lived with a smoker had a 1.5 higher risk to develop tuberculosis compared to those that had not been constantly exposed to tobacco smoke. Also all the women exposed to tobacco smoke were more vulnerable to some obstructive lung disease as well as diabetes.

Dr. Neal L. Benowitz from the University of California points out that secondhand smoking has many adverse effects including the risk of lung cancer and heart disease in adults, and breathing problems and asthma in children.