Smoking can cause impotence, according to a report to be published today by the British Medical Association.
Research has shown that smoking can increase the chances of becoming impotent by 50 per cent, and can also compound other risk factors for erectile dysfunction, the report warns.
It estimates that 120,000 men in Britain are impotent as a direct result of their habit.
Based on the BMA figures "up to 10,000 Irish men in their 30s and 40s could be suffering from impotence directly due to their smoking", according to the anti-tobacco group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Ireland.
ASH Ireland board member, Dr Fenton Howell, said that the research reinforced the need for more strongly-worded and more prominent warnings on cigarette packets. Both the BMA and ASH are urging the British government and the EU to add new warnings on packets stating that smoking causes impotence and can damage sperm.
Cigarettes sold in Thailand already carry an impotence warning, according to ASH, and Hong Kong is considering a similar move. A new EU directive is due to replace current warnings.
A Department of Health spokesman said the issue of such warnings would be addressed by its smoking policy group which is due to report shortly.
There are an estimated one million smokers in the State with a 50:50 breakdown between the sexes. A total of 32 per cent of Irish males smoke, though only 8 per cent in the 18- to 34-year-old category.
The Government takes almost £600 million from smokers every year in excise duty.
The damage smoking causes is cumulative. Years of smoking make it difficult for men to achieve or sustain an erection, according to the BMA report.
As a consequence, teenage smokers who cannot kick the habit could be impotent by the time they reach their 30s or 40s, warns the BMA.
"It is staggering that so few smokers realise there is a link," said Dr Bill O'Neill, tobacco adviser to the BMA.
"It is amazing how difficult it is to get across significant health messages in relation to smoking. One of the reasons for that, clearly, is the enormous investment that is put into advertising and marketing [cigarettes]," he said.
Anti-smoking campaign groups believe that this could change, however, after the publication of the BMA research.
They hope it may have a dramatic effect on smoking habits because of the media interest it will generate, but particularly because the problem is affecting males aged between 30 and 40, a significantly younger age group compared to those who generally get lung cancer.
"Impotence may not be as serious as cancer or heart disease, but it might be more important and immediate for men in their 20s to quit smoking," said Mr Clive Bates, UK director of ASH.
Although the risk of impotence caused by smoking had been known for some time it never formed part of previous campaigns because of the taboo surrounding sexual dysfunction.
"People were a bit squeamish about talking about impotence . . . and that to some extent has been dispelled by the debate over Viagra," said Mr Bates.
