Passive smoking and lung cancer

Abstract

Evidence that environmental tobacco smoke may be a risk factor for lung cancer among individuals who themselves have never smoked tobacco products has been the subject of expert review over the last decade by several United States and international agencies. The most recent comprehensive review, published in 1993 by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, concluded that environmental tobacco smoke is a Group A (known human) carcinogen. This report, coming in the midst of rapid social and political change in attitudes towards public policy implications for protecting human health, has been the subject of considerable discussion. Issues involved in these discussions, as well as more recently published studies on the topic, are reviewed with respect to current thinking about the risk of lung cancer in passive smokers, particularly women, who are lifetime never-smokers.