Beware smokers! Smoking now can lead to erectile dysfunction (ED). This is what a new study has revealed.

The study also shows that people who have given up on smoking achieve better performance than other smokers who have the same ED problem.

The Department of Community Medicine and Department of Nursing Studies of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has recently carried out a joint survey on ED in collaboration with the Family Planning Association and Kwong Wah Hospital.

The result shows that a man who smokes 20 cigarettes or more a day has 50 per cent higher risk of having ED, and those who quit smoking have 30 per cent less risk of having ED.

"Smoking damages blood circulation and increases the chance of men having ED," said Professor T.H. Lam of the HKU's Department of Community Medicine.

"It also reduces reduction in sperm production, damages normal development of sperms, raises the opportunity of deficiency in the embryo or even sterility.

"So the more cigarettes one smokes and the longer one's smoking history is, the more hazard will be caused," he added.

The professor felt that men would be more cautious after the new anti-smoking law is passed next month because the warning of impotence would be printed on the cigarette packs.

Moreover, cigarettes which claim to be milder or lighter will not do smokers less harm, he said.

According to Dr Andrew Yip, chief of service of Kwong Wah Hospital's Department of Surgery, two-thirds of patients seeking their help were smokers.

Besides, 5 per cent of the patients broke up with their wives because of ED, he revealed.

Although they encouraged the patients to quit smoking, some of the patients just started smoking again after some time.

"For patients who have quit smoking or not, the effects of treatments of the smokers are always worse than that of the ex-smokers," he said.

(HK Edition 06/28/2006 page2)