Increased cancer risk for smokers' children

A study has revealed a possible increased risk of lung cancer, for children exposed to passive smoking.

Children who are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke on a daily basis for many hours have as much as three times the risk of developing lung cancer later in life, than those who grow up in smoke-free households, a paper published in the British Medical Journal states.

The study also found that children who are exposed to passive smoking daily, but only for a few hours, still had twice the risk of developing the disease. Disturbingly, children who only experienced passive smoking a few times a week, were still found to be one and a half times more likely to develop lung cancer, than those who were not exposed at all.

The research is one of the most comprehensive studies conducted into passive smoking. It involved 303,020 non-smokers or people who had stopped smoking for at least ten years across Europe. In all 123,479 people provided information on passive smoke exposure and their progress was followed for around seven years.

The research found that of those non-smokers who had knowingly had exposure to passive smoke, 97 had developed lung cancer, 20 more had contracted upper respiratory cancers, such as cancer of the larynx and 14 died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, during the seven-year follow-up period.

The research also found that former smokers had twice as much risk of developing respiratory diseases from passive smoking than those who had never smoked. Researchers believe that this is probably because their lungs are already damaged, leaving them at a greater risk of the effects of environmental tobacco smoke.

Researchers believe that this study "significantly reinforces" previous research into the dangers of passive smoking.

The publication of the new study has been welcomed by cancer charities, anti-smoking groups and the British Medical Association, who said that the study confirmed that passive smoking caused deaths.

However, the study was criticised by smokers' lobby group, FOREST, who said that the effects of passive smoking were too difficult to measure accurately.

(KMcA/SP)