Philip Morris
Weaknesses in Recent Risk Assessments of Environmental Tobacco Smoke
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I~191 I~PI ~ hl~ II~I I~I ®' Il~ il~ Dll'
~WESSES IN RECENT RISK ASSESSMENTS
OF ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO SMOKE
~ f
P.N. LE E
& Cuting~ ' J Cadar R ed,SuttonbSwVwy SM2 SDe~'U.K.
(Recewed 25 June 1990, Accepted 11 January 1991)
Epidemiological evidence of increased Iting cancer riitk in never smokers married to smokers
has been used' to estimate annus] deaths from environment.al'tobacec smoke (ETS) exposure. Such
estimates are very much higher than those based on dosimettic considerations and misltadingly
ignore major weaknesses in the epidemiology. Some authors overestimate total lung cancers
occurring in never smokers. There is no scientific basis for extending risk auaessments to
include deaths from other causes, from workplace exposure to ETS, and among ex-smokera.
Recent rti.k assessments by VGe11L, by Repace and Lowrey, and by Kawachi and' colleagues are
given particuli<r attention.
WTROnuCTIOIv
In 1986 four authorities revi'ewed the
evidence on the relationship of environmental
tobacco smoke (ETS) and' health (11-4). There was
agreement that there was inadequate evidence to
determine whether ETS caused heart disease or
cancers other than the lung. With regard to lung
cancer views were more conflicting. The
International Agency for Research on Cancer (1),
while noting that "several epidemiological
studies have reported an increased' risk of lung
cancer in non-smoking spouses of smokers"
pointed to "substantial difiticulties" and errors
that "could arguably have artefactually depressed
or raised estimated risks" so that each study "is
compatible either with an increase or with an
absence of risk": The Australian National
Health and Medical Research Council (2) noted
that "the evidence that passive smoking causes
lung cancer is strongiy' suggestive" and, although
pointing to difficulties in many studies that
"preclude a conclusive interpretation", stated
that "passive smoking gives rise to some risk of
cancer". The US Surgeon General (3) concluded
that "involuntary smoking is a cause of lung
cancer" but that quantification of the risk for the
US population 'is dependent on a number of
factors for which only a limited amount of data
are currently avaidable". The US National
Research Council (4)' noted that a"summary'
estimate from epidemiological studies places the
1q.1
increased risk of lung cancer in non-smokers
married to smokers compared with non-smokers
married to non-smokers at about 34`b" and
considered' that, though "to some extent,
misclassification bias may have contributed to
the results reported i!m the epidemiological
literature"; the "bias is not likely to account' for
all of the increased risk'.
Although one of the four authorities felt it
premature to conclude cause and effect, and two
who thought cause and effect could be concludedd
felt it could not be quantif ed, there has been an
increasing tendency to carry out risk
assessments to estimate annual numbers of
deaths due to ETS. The purpose of this paper is to
underline a number of problems in conducting
such risk assessments, and' to comment
critically on three that have recently been
published. The first, by Wells (5), estimated that
annually in the United' States 46,000 deaths per
year occurred among non-smokers (i.e. never
plus ex-smokers combined)I due to ETS exposure
at home and at work. 3,000, were from llung
cancer, 1'1,000 from other cancer and 32,000 from
heart disease. The second, by Kawachi and
colleagues (6), estimated that annually in, New
Zealand 2?$' deaths per year occurred among
never smokers, 30 from lung cancer and 243
from ischaemic heart disease: 95 deaths were
from at home expo.ure and 1178 from at work
exposure. The third nsk assessmenti, by Repace
and Lowrey (7), was based on a review of nine

n
other risk assessments for lung cancer. They
noted that "excluding one study whose estimate
differs from the mean of the others by two orders
of magnitude, the remaining risk assessments
are in remarkable agreement. The mean
estimate is approximately 5000 ± 2400 non-
smokers' lung cancer deaths per year in the US".
This paper starts by discussing risk
assessment for lung cancer among never
smokers based on epidemiological data in
relation to spouse smoking, this being the area
most intensively studied. Following this
problems resulting from extending the risk
assessment to cover other diseases are
discussed, as are those caused by considering
workplace as well as at home ETS exposure.
Finally, some other issues are considered.
LUNG CANCER L*71dEVFR SMOKERS
IN RELATION TO ETS EXP06U'RE
FROM TFE SPOUSE
An up-to-date review of the evidence (8)'
shows there are 27 epidemiolbgical studies of
lung cancer (involving nine or more cases) in
which risk in never smokers could be related to
the smoking status of the spouse (or in five
studies to an alternative index of at-home
exposure): Eleven studies were conducte& in the
US, eceven in Asia and five in Europe, involving a
total of 2350 lung cancer cases with relevant data,
90% of these being females. 26 of the 27 studies
provide estimates of relative risk in relation to
this index of ETS exposure for females; values
razp from just under 1.0 to just over 2.0. Five
are statistically significantly positive and 20
estiitates are greater than 1.0: Taken as a whole
thedata show a positive rei'ationship - the median
is.aoout 1.25. Based on 17 of these studies, using
fornal rneta-analytic techniques which weighted
stufies on sampie size but not on quality of
evttbnce, Wells (5) gave an average relative risk
of 1144, with 95% confidence limits 1.26 to 1.66.
The data for males are more variable, being
bswd on 11 studies often with small numbers of
Agitfis. Seven relative risks were greater than 1,
aoteesignificantly so, with one equall to 1 and three
isessthan 1. The median is similar to that for
:earaies.
The epidemiologicali evidence has been used
for the risk assessments of Wells (5) and
liiaeachi et at (6). It has also been used for a
ntm,ber of the risk assessments cited by Repace
an& Lowrey (7). This is only valid if the
epidimiological' evidence itself is sound and not
subjw--tv, material bias. In order to investigate
this issue, two questions will be addressed; first,
"Ils the magnitude of the risk plausible based on
what is known about the extent of exposure?" and'
^econd, Are there weaknesses and sources of
bias in the epidemiology which could invalidate
the approach?'
Dosimetric considerations.
If lung cancer risk, relative to a non ETS exposed
never smoker, is RE in an ETS exposed never
smoker and RS in an ever smoker, then the ratio
of excess risks X=(RE-1)I(RS-1) is an indicator
of the relative effects of ETS exposure alone and
of smoking. Since risk associated with smoking
is approximately proportional to number of
cigarettes smoked, one might expect, were the
epidemiology unbiassed, that X would be similar
to the ratio of relevant smoke constituents from
ETS exposure and from smoking. Table 11 shows,,
in rank order, estimates of X based on data for 1'8
studies in females and 7 studies in males. In
females, almost half (8/18)', of estimates are 0.2
or greater with the median value 0.14. For males,
the results vary more and are base& on many less
data points, but the conclusions to be drawn are
similar - namely that the epidemiological
evidence, if unbiassed, suggests that the extent of
exposure from ETS (from spousal smoking) is
something like 110-20R6 of that from active
smoking.
It is clear the ratio of exposure from ETS and'
exposure from active smoking is much lower
than 1020°'ro for those smoke constituents that are
commonly used as markers. In a large
nationally representative study in the Uh (27);
mean salivary cotinine levels in non-smokers
married to non-smokers, in non-smokers
married to smokers and in smokers were
respectively 1.22; 3.78 and 331 ng/mli in males
and 0.76, 2.21 and 328 ng/ml in females, giving a
relative exposure for ETS to active smoking of
0.8% in males and 0.4% in females. Repace and
Lowrey (7) give a slightly higher figure, notrng
that non-smokers have of "the order of 1% of
nicotine uptake of smokers" but it is still an
order of magnitude less than the 10-20% one
requires to align with the epidemiology.
Differences in clearance rates of cotinine
reported between non-smokers and smokers are
too small to affect this gross discrepancy
materially; in any case, since the half-life
seems to be longer in non-smokers it would
increase the discrepancy (28); not reduce it as
Repace and Lowrey (7) claim.
194

TABLE 1 Comparability of relative riska due to ETS exposure (from spouse) and active smoking
Study ( r e f) Sex RE' RS" X+
Inoue (9) Female 2.55 4.25 0.48
Geng (10), 2.16 4.18 0.36
Trichopoulos (11Y 2.08 4.37 0M
Akiba (12 Y 1.52' 3.24 0:23
Brownson (13), 1.82 4.75 0.22
Koo (14) 1.55 3.56 0.21
Lam 1 (15), 2.01 5.94 0.20
Hole (16), 1.89 5.43 0.20
Lam 2 (17) 1.65 4.97 0.16
Hirayama (18) 1.38 4.12 0.12
Gao (19) 1.19 3.15 0.09
Wu (20) 1.20 3.31 0.09
Correa (21) 2.07 14.10 0.08
Humble (22) 2.34 28.53 0.05
Svensson (23) 1.26 7.17 0.04
Lee (24) 1.03 4.70 0.01
Buffler (25) 0.80 5.91 -0.04
Chan (26) 0:75 3.07 -0.12
Akiba (12) Male 2.10 3.21 0.50
Hirayama (18) 2.34 4.39 0.40
Hole (16) 3.52 15.88 0.17
Humble (22) 4.19 29.36 0.11
Correa (21) 1.97 30.15 0.03
Lee (24) 1.31 12.02 0.03
Buffler (25) 0.51 7.03 -0.08
' Risk of ETS exposed never smoker relative to non ETS exposed never smoker
" Risk of ever smoker relative to non ETS exposed never smoker
+ Ratio of excess risks, e.g.for first study 0:48 :(2.55-1)/(4.25-1).
N.B'. Risks given are unstandardised for age since stand'ardise& estimates were not available in
many studies and generally differed little from unstandardised estimates where both were
available.
Estimates of relative exposure base& on
inhaled smoking-related particulates show an
even greater discrepancy: Arund'el et al' (29) have
estimated that for the US average daily inhale&
particulate ETS exposure for all never smokers
is 0.62 mg/day for men and 0.2$' mg/day for
women as against 387 mg for men and 311 mg for
women who currently smoke. Since ETS exposure
of exposed non-smokers is about 3 times that of
all non-smokers (27); one can~ calculate that the
ratio of average exposure for ETS to active
smoking is about 0.4% in men and 0.2% in
women, similar to an estimate of 0.3% given by
Repace and Lowrey (7)'based an their own work.
Arundel et al (29) pointed out retention of
smoking related particulates is much higher in
smokers (80^a) than iin, non-smokers(117c)'. They
estimated a relative exposure for ETS to active
smoking of around 0.03-0.04% (29)., Using
radiotracer techniques, a similar, very low ratio
of 0.02% has been estimated based on particulate
deposition in the trachea-bronchial region (30).
While both ETS and mainstream smoke
eontain a wide variety of chemicals, and relative
exposure of passive and active smokers will vary
quite widely according to which chemical is used
as the marker - the factor being higher for vapour
phase than for particulate phase compounds (311) -
there is certainly strong evidence of a marked
discrepancy between the epidemiology and
dosimetry. Indeed, since it is commonly
believed lung cancer in smokers is associated
with depositiom of particulate matter in the lung -
the basis of "tar" reduction programmes - the
discrepancy seems very large, by two or even
three orders of magnitude.
One implication is that risk assessments
based on dosimetric evidence are likely to give
substantially lower estimates than those based on
the epidemiological evidence. Another impli!-
cation is that it gives reason to doubt the epi-
demtology, and to lbok for sources of bias.
195

Risk assessments based on dasimstry versus
those based on epidemiology.
Let us consider the situation with regard to the
three risk assessment papers which are being
studied in detail. A1T three have different
approaches.
Kawachi et a! takes the epidemiology at face
value and do not attempt risk assessment based
on dosimetrie evidence (except vide infra to
adjust relative risks for at home exposure to those
for at work exposure). The discrepancy between
the dosimetry and the epidemiology is not evem
mentioned'..
Wells (5) also bases his risk assessment on,
the epidemiology. However he does note that the
mortality observed for passive smoking is
"rather high"' relative to the deposited dose of
particulate, contrasting relative factors for
passive to active smokers of 0.25% for "smoke
retention" (Arundel's figures cited above suggest
0.03-0.04%) and' 2.9% for lung cancer (Table 1
suggests 110-2D%): He believes the differences
are due to differences in chemistry and' physics
between active and passive smoking, and'
essentially does not doubt the validity of the
epidemiology.
Repace and' Lowrey (7) review risk assess-
ments based both on dosimetric and epidemi-
ologieal' evidence. While this should have
revealed major differences between estimates
based on the two methods of risk assessment they
in fact. claim "remarkable agreement"'. There
are many reasons for this erroneous conclusion:
i) They rejected the estimate of Arundel et a[
(29), based on retained particulate matter,
because iti differs from the mean of the
others by two orders of magnitude.
i i) They misquote Robins' work in the NRC
report (4): They cite his estimates of 2500-
5200 US deaths in lifelong non-smokers
per year from passive smoking as being
dosimetrically based when in fact they
clearly are epidemiologically based.
Robins also provides much liower
estimates of 45-396 deaths based' on
respirable suspended particulates, but
Repace an&Lowrey totally ignore these.
iii) They quote an early paper by Fong (32),
which assumed that the extent of' exposure
from ETS was of order 2% to 8~'M that from
active smoking, a relative factor far higher
than indicated! by the more recent data
summarized in the previous section.
iv) They amit their own dosimetrically based
estimate because it is 'inconsistent with
the epidemiology of passive smoking . It
is hardly surprising they get "remarkable
agreement" if they reject estimates that do
not agree!
Table 2 presents the various estimates for the
studies reviewed by Repace and Lowrey (7). The
epidemiologically based estimates are reason-
ably consistent and high. The dosimetrically
based estimates are much lower. How much
lower depends on the smoke constituent used for
extrapolation,
Weaknesses of the epidemiology.
Epidemiology is imprecise. Various sources
of bias can produce spurious relative nsks of 2 or
even more (38). Since the relative risks seen for
ETS exposure are well within this range, and
since they seem inconsistent with the dosimetric
evidence, it is important to examine the epi-
demiolbgical evidence critically. Six potential
sources of bias are considered below:
Misclassification of di agnosis.
Of the 27 epidemiological studies of' ETS and
lung cancer, three were prospective and based
diagnosis on d'eath certif cates, and only 15 used
only (or virtually only) histologically confirmed
cases. Faccini,(39) has discussed the dangers of
misdiagnosis, particularly of primary breast
cancer as lung adenocarcinoma. The magnitude
and extent of bias from this source is, however,
unclear. Random misdiagnosis would tend to
reduce the relative risk but differential
misdiagnosis might increase it. In theory
differential misdiagnosis might occur if a nsk
factor for the misdiagnosed disease is correl'ated
with ETS exposure, or if knowledge of ETS
exposure by the doctor affects diagnostic
procedures, but there is no direct evidence of
this. N
Misclassification of ETS exposure.
N
None of the studies had any objective measure C4
of ETS exposure, either from ambient air ul
measurements in the home or workplace or from ~
measurements of levels of smoke constituents in N
body fluids. All information came from C
questionnaires. While random miscl'assifi-
cation of exposure will~ tend to dil'ute ~
associations, it is possible that in case-control,
studies some recall bias might have occurred,
with cases overestimating exposure relatively to
196

controls in an attempt to rationalize their
disease. This would probably have been less
important for relatively "hard"' questions such as
those relating to whether the spouse smoked than
for more "soft" questions on extent of exposure.
Publication bias.
There is strong reason to believe (40) that
scientists are less likely to submiti, and journals
less likely to accept, papers showing no
association than those showing a positive
association. If so, published evidence tends to
overestimate the true association of a factor with
a disease. Since ETS has been the subject of much
attention in recent years and since a relati,vely
large number of unpublished null studies would
be needed to counterbalance the high proportion of
studies of spouse smoking and lung cancer
showing a positive association, it would seem
unlikely non-reporting bias could fully explain
the overall positive relative risk. However the
fact that the studies showing the highest relative
risk are based' on significantly smaller numbers
of cases than the studies showing the lowest
relative risks (8) is consistent with the notion
that small null studies do not get published', and
suggests some publication bias exists.
TABLE 2 Estimated number of lung cancer deaths occurring in US never smokers from ETS
exposure in 1988 (adapted from Repace and Lowrey (7)).
Study (ref) Metho& of estimation~ Estimate '
Wald' (33) Epidemiological 5210
Repace & Lowrey (34) Phenomenological " 4310
Robins (4) Epid'emi'ological 4150
Wigle (35) Epidemiological 3650
Kuller (36) Epidemiological 3500
Wells (5), Epidemiological 21,30
Fong (32) Dosimetric - 2% to 8% of effect 1860
Russell (37) Dosimetric - nicotine 710
Repace & Lowrey (34) Dosimetric-respirabiesuspended 490
Robins
(4), particulates
Dosimetric +
240
Arunde) (29) Dosimetric - retained particulate 40
m atter
As given in (7); rounded, or converted' from estimate for nonsmokers. Dosimetric estimate for
.a
Robins study added.
Based' on comparison of' lung cancer rates in never smoking SDAs (Seventh Day Adventists) and
non SDAs (uncorrected for numerous lifestyle factors on which SDAs and non SDAs are known to
differ).
+ Assuming a non-exposed non-smoker inhales the equivalent of 0,01 cigarettes per day. Robins
gives 0.0001-0.005 cigarettes per day for the equivalent in terms of respirable suspended
particulates.
Poor design of some studies.
Of the 27 studies which provided information
on ETS and lung cancer, 24 were of case-control
design. There were clear weaknesses in d'esign
in a number of the case-control studies. One
study (10) did not even state what the control group
was. Four studies (9;, 12, 211, 25) included some
patients or d'ecedents with smoking associated
diseases in their control group. More seriouslyy
there were systematic differences in studyy
procedure between cases and controls in a
number of studies., In three studies where the case
might have been alive or dead (13, 22, 41) the
controls were not matched om vital status. Two
studies (11 15), used cases and controls from
different hospitals.. Two studies (17, 23)
interviewed cases in hospital and some or all,
controls elsewhere. In three studies (13, 21, 22)
the proportion of next-of-kin respondents was
substantially higher for cases than controls.
Although difficult to quantify the effect of such
procedural differences it is notable that for
females the observed relative risk in the eight
studies showing differences was higher (median
1.9) than in the 17 studies where like was being
compared with like (median 1.2. p on rank test
<0.05). It is also worth noting that three studies
(12, 25, 42) obtained a high, proportion of
responses from next-of-kin and that in one of'these (42), no association betweeni lung cancer
risk and spouse smoking was seen when the
P"

subject herself reported the information, but a 3-
`old relative risk was seen when the infurmation
as obtained from a daughter or a son.
Confounding.
There were 22 studies in which the index of
ETS exposure used was smoking by the husband.
One woul'd' have thought that the standard
procedure would have been to present an age-
adjusted comparison of married never smoking
women whose husbands were non-smokers with
married never smoking women whose husbands
were smokers, and to also present a relative risk
adjusted' further for other potentially confounding
factors known to affect risk of lung cancer. It
was clear this standard procedure was not kept to:
About half of these studies included unmarried'
women in their non-exposed group so that there
was a confounding betweem marital status and!
ETS exposure. Three of the 22'studies (11, 15, 43)
and also one of the other five (26) did not adjust
for age at all while in three others (10, 17, 21),
although cases and controls were age-matched'
initially, the error was made of failing to age
adjust after the never smokers were selected out..
Almost half the studies failed to take into account
any other confounding factors and of the
:mainder most' looked at only quite a limi2ed
number of possible such factors. Those few
studies which looked at a reasonable number of
confounders were generally those where no
significant effect of ETS exposure had been seem
anyway._ Koo (44) compared' never smoking
women whose husbands did or did not smoke on a
wide range of factors and found that those whose
husbands did not smoke were "better off in terms
of socio-economic status, more conscientious
housewives, ate better diets, and had better
indices of family cohesiveness".
Miscliassification.
It is amply documented that active smoking is
positively associated with lung cancer and also
that smokers tend preferentially to marry
smokers more often than would be expected by
chance. As a result, even if ETS had no effect
whatsoever on lung cancer risk, a spurious
positive association, between spouse smoking and
lung cancer nsk will be seen if a proportion of
ever smokers are misclassified as never
smokers (2-,). The relationship between the
magnitude of this bias and the misclassification
ate can be calculated theoretically given the
.iegree of between spouse smoking concordance,
the observed proportion of ever smokers, the
observed proportion of never smokers who are
married to smokers, and the observed relative
risk in relation to active smoking. Table 3 shows
this relationship for four scenarios: US women,
US men, Asian women and Asian men. The
misclassification bias is much larger where the
proportion of smokers is larger, and' where the
relative risk in relatiom to active smoking is
larger. In order to achieve a bias of 1.4 for
example, one would need less than a 1% mis-
classification for US men, about a 2% misclas-
sification for Asian men, about a 5% misclassi-
fication for US women and about a 30% mis-
classifcation for Asian women. Elsewhere (44).
I have reviewed in detail the published evidence
on the levels of misclassification actually
determined in over 100 studies. In studies of
self-reported non-smokers under no special:
pressure to deny smoking, biochemicali tests
suggested that on average around 4% were actually
current smokers, with 1 to 2% current regular
smokers. I!n additiion to the misclassified
current smokers, studies in which subjects were
asked questions on multipl!e occasions have
shown a somewhat larger number of ax-smokers
misclassified as never smokers. The evidence
is certainlj consistent with misclassification,
bias being of major importance in the US (and'
European) studies. However there is virtually no
good evidence on misclassification rates in,
Asian populations. There has long been,
speculation that rates may be particularly high,
among women in Japan, where smoking is not
considered socially acceptable. A survey of
Tokyo University freshwomen (46); among whom
55% of smokers reported that their family did not
know they smoked, tends to confirm this.
However until cotinine studies are conducted to
find out the ttue situation the extent' of bias caused
by misclassification in Asian studies will
remain unclear.
Misclassification also leads to overes-
timation of the total number of lung cancerss
among never smokers. This is considered below
under "other issues":
Concllusion.
The answerzi to the two questions posed
earlier are clear. The epidemiology has indi-
cated a magnitude of risk in relation to spouse
smoking that is implausibly large compared' with
what is known about the extent of ETS exposure
involved. There are clear weaknesses and
sources of bias in the epidemiology which could
invalidate risk assessments based on it. The
most important of these are misclassification
bias and failure properly to compare like with
/"~n 0

like in case-control studies, but failure to
properly take confounding variables into account
and publication bias are also relevant.
All three risk assessments criticised in this
document take the epidemiology virtually at face
value, with no real discussion at' all of its
weaknesses. Thus Kawachi et a!' (6) mentions
only' publication bias (and dismisses it), while
Wells (5) considers only misclassifeation bias
(and' then inadequately corrects for it). Repace
and Lowrey (7) do not discuss any sources of bia
at all (2hough some of the authors wnose studit
they review do so). No reasonable scientir
criteria are used to decide what constitutes a val':
study before it can be included in a ris
assessmenL - studies conducted with complet
disregard of basic
included as if they
designed studies.
scientific principles ar
were as
valid as carefull'
TABLE 3 Bias due to misclassification in four scenarios.
Scenario % Ever Smoked % ETS Exposed RR for Smoking Misclassification Rate Bias
US wocnen 49.0 54.3 6.73 1% 1.06
2% 1.12
5% 1.35
10% 2.02
US men 77.1 38,7 11.83 1% 1.52
2% 2.38
Asiam women 24.5 56.9 2.99 10% 1.07
25% 1.26
40% 1.73
50% 2.82
l Asian men 80.8 6.6 3.48 1% 1.20
2% 1.42
5% 2.36
N'.B. No effect of ETS and between spouse concordance ratio of 3.0 assumed. % ever smoked, % ETS
exposed and RR trelative rnsk) for active smoking estimated from those studies providingg
relevant data. See (8) for further details.
FXTE..''~1DGtVG RLSK ASSESSMENT TO
COVER DISFARES OTHER'I'fiAN
LUNG CANCER
Heart disease.
In the risk assessment by Wells (5); heart
disease deaths formed 70% of the total. In that by
Kawachi et al (6), they formed 89%. As noted
above, in 1986 none of the major authorities
considered that ETS had been shown to cause heart
disease. Evidently Wells and' Kawachi, in
assuming that ETS causes heart disease, are
jumping to a conclusion that a number of panels
of distinguished scientists have not reached.
While there are more data now than, in 1986, it
remains abundantdv clear that the evidence still
does not support this conclusion..
Wells (5), cites data from six published
studies (18. 24, 47-50) and' one unpublished study
(51): Of these seven studies f ve (16, 24, 48, 50;
51) were based on very much small'er number of
deaths/cases than the other two (18, 49) so that theyy
contribute very little to the overall meta-
analysis. While some further small studies have
been published since (see 8), none are large. For
this reason it is worth taking a detailed look at the
two larger studies.
The largest of these studies was by H'elsing et
al (49h This involved more heart disease deaths
among non-smokers than all the other studies
combinedl It reported a 24^c increase in heart
disease risk in women exposed to ETS, based on
988' deaths, and a 31% increase in men,, based on
370 deaths. Many features of the study and the
results render any conclusion that ETS causes
heart disease most insecure:
iY The companson was of people who lived wtt'h
a smoker and of those who did not- with no
direct adjustment for the number of people in
the household. Clearly the larger the
household, the more likely it is to contain a

moker, so any risk factors related to
househol'd' size could contribute to the
association.
ii ) The study was not a properly conducted
prospective study, in that data were only
collected on whether a given subject had or
had not died in W'ashingtom County over the
12-year period. Differences in smoking
habits and disease status between those who
left the county and those who did not may have
caused substantial bias.
iii) There was no dose-response relationship in
the exposed groups. Indeed, in men the risks
(relative to the non-exposed) were somewhat
lower with increasing exposure score.
iv) Adjustment for effects of age, marital status,
years of school and quality of housing used a
procedure that was unclear and which had a
huge effect. Thus in women, the passive
smoke exposed' group had a crude heart
disease death rate 34~"p lower than the non-
exposed group. After adjustment it was 24%
higher. Such a large effect of adjustment
makes one wonder just how contingent the
reported results were on the exact list of
confounding variables ineluded, the
statistical, technique used for adjustment, and
the accuracy with which the confounding
variables were measured.
v)~ A whole range of factors have been rei'ated to
heart disease. Among major factors not
considered in the stud~ were hypertension
and aholesteroi level..
While it' is difficult to determine the relative
importance of the features listed above, it is clear
that one must have very consid'erable reser-
vations about the results from this study.
The Japanese prospective study of Hirayama
(18) is superficially very good, being very large,
having a long follow-up period and being
apparently reasonably representative. However,
following detailed scrutiny given to his study
following the 1981 paper (52) which really brought
ETS to public attention, a number of authors have
identified various weaknesses (53, 54, 55). His
questionnaire was extremely short and crude by
modern standards, severely limiting the number
of risk factors studied and the depth to which they
could be investigated. The population was only
interviewed once with no changes in habits
-ecorded in 16 years. The mortality of his
.degedly representative population is too low to
reconcile satisfactorily with nati,onal' rates,,
indicating that tracing of deaths was incomplete,,
with deficits varying by age and marital status
(53). His statisticaI presentation is inadequate in
a number of ways: the methods used were not
appropriate for analysie of long-term cohort
studies;, rates for heart disease in women were
age adjusted' to their husband's age rather than
their own age; and some basic mistakes in
analysis were made. One error, noted in 1981
(54), resulted in enormous inflation of the
significance of the lung cancer associatiom A
second, noted more recently (55), concerned the
total inconsistency of results for heart disease
reported in 1981 and 1984, and was only resolved
by Hirayama (56) admitting his earlier data were
in error. A number of approaches have been made
to Hirayama to release his data for independent
verification of his findings by more appropriate
statistical methods, but Hirayarna has always
refused to release his data which only casts more
doubt on his findings. While his findings show a
16% increased risk of heart disease in never
smoking women, married to smokers which is
marginally significant when a dose-rel'ated trend
test is used, it is difficult to place much faith inn
his findhngs.
Al2hough it has been demonstrated above that
the risk assessment for heart disease essentially
rests on the results from two studies, both of
which seem unreliable, a number of other
general points can be made. First, there are a
very large number of risk factors for heart
disease. It is evident that adjustment for these
factors in the studies has always been incom-
plete, and oftem seriously incomplete. Second, the
extent of the association seen in some of these
studies, which in some cases is close to that
reported in relation to active smoking, is
implausibly high when viewed against the extent
of the association seen in relation to active
smoking. Third, there is a major danger of
publication bias. It is notable that the literature is
still relatively sparse despite the numerous
ongoing studies of heart disease and the fact that
heart disease in a non-smoker is probably 50
times or so more common than lung cancer in a
non-smoker. Any prospective study that has
reported on lung cancer c1'earl'y could have done
so for heart disease. The fact that the American
Cancer Society million person study, which
reported for liung cancer (57), has not reported
any results om the relationship of heart disease to
ETS can reasonably be read as implying no
relationship was found in that study. If this is in
fact true, and' its results were published, the
picture from the meta-analysis would change
dramatically since the study would' involve so
many deaths from heart disease in non-smokers.
,)nn

Cancer other than the lung.
Kawachi et al (6) did not' include deaths from
cancers other than the lung in their risk
assessments, but W'ells (5) did, although he only
made estimates for females since he considered
data for males to be too sparse. In fact, there is by
now rather more evidence available than Wells
considered and the picture is completely
unconvincing as to the effect of ETS exposure.
Of 10 studies providing some evidence, six
give no real indication of an effect of ETS. These
includ'ed' two moderate sized case-control studies
of bladder cancer (58, 59) which both gave relative
risks close to unity, a case-control atudy of
cervix cancer (60) which found' no association
with spouse smoking after controlling for
smoking by the femal!e subject, and a prospective
study (47) which found a non-significant relative
risk of 1.201far cancers other than the lung based
on 43' deaths. Another study showing no effect wass
the case-control study of Miller (61) from which
an age-adjusted relative risk of 0:97 for lung
cancer in reiation to husband's smoking history
could be cal'culated', It is interesting to note that
Miller, while presenting data by age, did not age-
stand'ardise, and gave a relative risk of 1.40,
while Wells (5), though he did age-standardise,
unaccountably used data for unemployed rather
than all women, giving a non-significant,
relative risk of 1.25. The largest study showing
no~ effect was the Washington County study on
which the Helstng heart disease results (49)' were
based! A later paper (62) reported that relative
risks for all cancer for living with a smoker
were 1.01 in~ males, based om 115 deaths, and 1.00!
in females, based on 501 deaths.
Turning now to~ the four studies that provided
at least some suggestion of an effect, the smallest
was thaU by Reynolds et al (63). This prospective
study found no association betweem smoking by
the spouse and risk of cancer in men, not giving
detailed results. In women, a positive
association was found, but this was only of
marginal significance (p=0,035), and the relative
risk of 1.68 had quite wide confidence limits,
being based on. only 71 cancer deaths, only five of
which were considered to be smoking, related.
In a large case-control study of cervix cancer
in Utah (64), a significant positive trend in risk
was noted' in relation to various indices of
passive smoking exposure. There were many
weaknesses in this study, incl!udi'ng f'ailure to
adjust for religion (42`'c of cases an& 58`1 of
controls were titormons); large and differential
non-response rates, m)sclassiifacation of
smoking status, and failure to adjust adeq,uatek
for sexual' habits. A crude relative risk of 14.8:
in relation to ETS exposure for three or marn
hours per day dropped to 2.96 after adjustment f'o
the reported number of sexual partners of tho
woman. As number of sexual partners is only ar
inaccurately measured surrogate of the trut
sexually related cause of cervix cancer
presumably, a sexually transmitted' infection, th(
adjustment will be incomplete and the excess
relative risk in relation to ETS may be wholl%
spuri.ous representing a residual confoundlnE
effect of sexual habits (65).
The other two studies reporting a positive
association were both~ cited by Wells (5) and were
the major contributors to his risk assessment for
cancers other than the lung. The study by Sandler
et a! (66) for which Wells cites a relative risk o:
2.0 based on 231 cases of cancer other than the
lung, use& a mixture of friends or acquaintances
of patients and people randomly selected bN
.
systematic telephone sampling as controls, a
very questionable procedure. Response rates also
varied substantially between cases and controls.
The unconvincing nature of the findings was
heightened by study of the results for individual
cancer sites where large effects were claimed
for ETS for a number of cancers (breast, th)Toid.
l,eukaemiaAymphoma) that have little or no
relationship, to smoking.
The largest study is that by Hirayama (18, 52.
67). Wells (5) cites a relative nsk of 1.11 (95`h
confidence limits 1.0-1.2) based on 2505 deaths
from, cancer other than the lung. This is
unconvincing for a number of reasons. First.
most of the comments made about this study when
considering the heart disease results apply.
Second, the relative risk is only at best of
marginal significance (trend p = 0.05 on a one-
tailed test). Third, the association with spouse
smoking arises mainly because of elevated risks
of brain and breast cancer, cancers that are not
smoking related.
The overall evidence for cancer other than
the lung is clearly remarkably unconvincing in
demonstrating any effect of ETS exposure.
Where any association is reported' it is generally
for cancer sites not affected by active smoking..
Wells (5) has great (and un)ustified) faith in, the
epidemiology, claming "these differences inn
mortality effects are probably renl." Because it
is certainly true (though as yet unquantified) that
smokers have higher ETS exposure than
nonsmokers it is a prtori very difficultit to see
how an association with any disease could be
observed only in response to ETS exposure, a
;J-/ I
no ,.

view endorsed by IARC (1): Wells argues
competing risks might be the explanation, effects
of ETS exposure on such cancers as brain,
sndocrine glands, lymphoma, and breast only
occurring in people with a particular
susceptibility, and that people with this
susceptibility; if they smoke, die first from lung
cancer or other smoking-related cancers. This
seems a remarkably unattractive and implau~
sible hypothesis, for which there is no supportive
evidence. Mortality patterns for lung cancer in
terms of age, d'ose and duration of smoking are
well described by models involving no
component for variation in susceptibility at all,
the response arising from random variation. Of
course susceptibility might in fact vary to some
extent (68, 69), but hardly so much that any, effect
in active smokers would be ruled out. The
simpler hypothesis that any relationship seen
betweem ETS and cancer of sites other than lung is
due to chance or bias seems more plausible.
FxTf."r'DNG RISK ccEcSMZNT TO
COVFT2 ETS F:XR)6URE FROM THE
WORKPLACE
Wells (5): took account of ETS exposure
outside the home in two ways in his risk
assessment. First, he estimated the proportion
exposed by adding the proportions of never
smokers living with ever smokers (taken from
the controls of the US based epid'emiological
studies) to the proportions of alll nonsmokers who
did not live with a smoker but who where still
exposed at home or at work (takenifrom Friedman
(70)). Second, he adjusted relative risk estimates
upwards, except in Greece Japan and Hong Kong,
by assuming that nanexposed nonsmokers were
actually exposed to 1/3 the extent of the exposed
nonsmokers. Essentially he assumed that
exposure outside the home had the same effect as
exposure from the spouse.
Kawachi et al (6) estimated the proportion of
people exposed at home and at work from surveys.
From the relative risk in relation to home
exposure, 1.3, they multiplied' the excess relative
risk- 0.3,, by a factor, 4.0, based on Repace and
Lowrey s estimate (34) of the relative extent of
exposure Go~ the particulate phase of ambient'
tobacco smoke at work (11.82 mg/day) to at home
(0.45 mglday); thus estimating relative nsk of
lung cancer in relationi to work exposure, 2.2.
They commented that 'this estimate is consistent:
with the rel'ative risk of 3.3' (95'' confidence
interval 1.01'0.5) for never smokers exposed to
passive smoking at work reported by Kabat and~
Wynder (71) in one of the few studies that has
distinguished exposure at work from, exposure at
home. However, we have adopte& the more
conservative estimate of 2.2".
It is surprising that neither Wells (:5)1 nor
Kawachi et al (6) seem to have actually taken into
account the total epidemiological evidence on
lung cancer in relation to workplace exposure.
Had they done so (see Table 4) they would have
found that overall it gives no indication of a
positive association at all, with only four out of
elievem relative risk estimates greater than 1.0
and only the single estimate (Kabat 1- males);
selectively cited by Kawachi et al (6) even close to
being significantly positive. The upper
confid'ence limiti for seven of the eleven
estimates is less than the estimate of 2:2' used in
their risk assessment.
Most lung cancer cases occur at an age after
people have retired. W}ule Wells (5) adjusts the
exposed fraction down with increasing age,
Kawachi et al (6) make no such adjustment,
assuming that their unjustifiably high relative
risk of 2.2 in relation to workplace exposure
operates at age 80 as at age 40:
The estimates by Kawachi et al (6) of risk due
to workplace exposure from risk due to at home
exposure are in any case methodologically un-
sound. Even assuming (and these are very big as-
sumptions); that meta-analysis gives unbiassed
estimates, that risk is linearly related to extent
of exposure to smoke constituents, and that the
estimates of relative exposure at work and at
home are valid, the equation they used is totally
incorrect. The formula only makes sense for a
companson of those exposed at work and not
elsewhere with those exposed at home and' not
elsewhere. If at home and at work exposure are
positively correlated (as is likely) double
counting of deaths arises. In the extreme
situation where everyone is exposed to both or to
neither source, their method for estimating
deaths due to at home exposure yields an answer
appropriate for both exposures combined'. Using
their procedure, which would then multiply up
deaths due to ETS by fivemight lead to there beingg
more deaths due to ETS than actually occur in, all:
The validity of the factor of 4 for relative
exposure at' work to at' home is anyway verv
dubious. A recent large survey in London (74):
found little difference between particulate matter
levels measured in the home an& at work. Indeed
where smoking took place, the level! at work was
1= than at home.
202

TABLE'4 Reported relative risks of lung cancer in relation to ETS exposure at work.
Study (ref) Sex Index of exposure Relative nsk
(95°k conf.limits)
Garfinkeli (42) Female Smoke exposure at work in last 5 years 0:88C0,66-1.18d
Female Smoke exposure at work in last 25 years 0.93(0:73-1.18)
Kabat 1 (71) Female Current exposure on regular basis to tobacco 0.68(0:32-1.47)
Male smoke at work
Current exposure on regular basis to tobacco
3.27(1.01-10.6)
Kabat2
(72)
Female smoke at work
Exposed to ETS at work (ever)
1.00(0.49-2.06)
Male Exposed to ETS at work (ever) 0.98(0:46-2.10)
Lee (24) Fem ale Passive smoke exposure at work 0.63(0.17-2.33)
Male Passive smoke exposure at work 1.61(0.39-6.60)
Shimizu (73) Female Someone at working place smokes 1.20(0.44-1.37)
Varela (411) Both 150 person/years smoking in the workplace 0:91(0.80,1.04)
Wu (20) Female Passive smoke exposure at work 1.3 (0.5-3.3).
a'IH3;R LSSLJFS
Extension of risk assessments to workplace ETS
and heart disease deaths.
While the use of epid'emiological data to
estimate the number of deaths from lung cancer
among never smokers is dubious, extension of
these estimates to other diseases and to
workplace exposure is even more so. This
highlights the invalidity of the estimates by
Kawachi et a! (6) where of a total of 273 deaths per
year due to ETS among never smokers, only ~Lare
from lung cancer due to at home ETS exposure,
while as many as .j 5?. are from ischaemic heart
disease due to at work ETS exposure., The
fragility of the confidence limits, 112 to 442, for
the overall total of 273 is obvious. In no sense can
we be confident that the true answer lies in this
range. The estimate is cast in an even poorer
light when one realises that the factor of 4 used to
calculate lung cancer relative risks at work from
those at home is also used for heart disease. What
is the justification for that? The basis for the
factor is relative particuliate matter exposure,
widely thought irrelevant to heart disease
aetiology. It is notable that their resultant heart
disease relative risk estimates for at workk
exposure are, implausibly, larger than those
generally reported in relation to actiive smoking.
Extension of risk assessments to exsmokers.
Wells (5)and Repace and Lowrey (7)
estimate numbers of deaths due to ETS among
never smokers and ex-smokers combined. They
assume risk estimates based on results for never
smokers are applicable al'so to~ ex-smokers.
Neither paper discusses the problems implicit in
this approach. In the first place there is no direct
epidemiological evidence on risk in relation to
ETS exposure for ex-smokers with the limited
exception of the study by Varela (41) which found
no evidence of an effect of ETS in either never
smokers or long term ex-smokers. Nor is there
any evidence on levels of ETS exposure in ex-
smokers as distinct from never smokers.
Without direct evidence the assumption that nskk
increases in relation to level of ETS exposure in
ex-smokers to t'he same extent' that it does in
never smokers seems remarkably simplistic.
Might not effects of ex-smoking interact with
those of ETS (if any)? Might not the situation
depend' on how long ago the smoker has given up ,
or why? There seems no scientific justification
whatsoever for extrapolating estimates to ex-
smokers.
Extrapolation from one country to another.
Kawachi er al (6)' do not discuss the validity of
calculating estimates for New Zealand when all
their relevant source data comes from other
countries.. Their answer depends heavily on the
US based factor of 4 used for relative exposure at
work to at home. As noted above a UK study (68,
found' a factor less than 11. Which is relevant for
New Zealand?
Variations in relative risk of lung cancer by age.
As discussed by Wells ('5) and' in the NRC
report by Robins (4'); if the relationship between
?nl

ETS andldng cancer risk depended on age, it
would be appropriate to take this into account in
the ri'sk assessment. In fact only the study of
Hirayama (18; 67) presents data by age, other
investigators implicitly assuming that the
relative risk is invariant of age. Using a relative
risk estimate of 1.44 as applying to all age
groups, Wells calculated there would be 992
deaths per year due to ETS exposure. Wells noted
that Hirayama's data actually indicated "a
declining relative risk with~ age from 1.87 at
approximately age 50 to 1.43 at approximately age
75" and used these data to "develop a second d'eath,
calculation assuming a declining relative risk
but still normalized'to 1.44" arriving at a slightly
lower estimate of 911 deaths per year. Wells"
calculations mislead in a number of ways. First,
he used as source material data an risk by age of
the husband (67) when more appropriate data by
age of the wife were available (18). Second; he
used data for ages 60-69 and 70-79 combined' as
applicable at "approximately age 75", concealing
the fact that the relative risk estimate at age 70-79
is actually 0.70: If one uses data in Wells' Table
6 for never smoker death rates, nonsmoker
populations and4ractions exposed by age, and one
uses Hirayama's actual relative risks by age of
the wife (18), then it can be shown (Table 5) that
allowing for variation in risk by age very
substantially affects estimates. Thus, for the 40-
79 age group; one arrives at an estimate of 858
deaths due to ETS if one assumes age invariance,
but one actually arrives at an estimate of 964
deaths saved by ETS if one uses Hirayama s data
directly. The relative risk estimate for the M79
year age group is certainly unreliable, being
based on only 6 deaths in the Hirayama study (as
against 46, 91 and 57 for ages 40-49, 50-59', 60,69),
so in Table 5 estimates of deaths are also shown
using a combined relative risk for the age groups
60-69 and 70-79. This gives an estimate of 299
deaths due to ETS, substantially less that that
assuming risk is invariant of age. While there
are many problems in applying the Hirayarna
estimates, including the fact that Wells' Table 6
is based on age at death whereas Hirayama s d'ata
are based on age at start of the study Wells' paper
conceals the major problems which have been
given detailed attentiom by a number of authors
(75;, 76). Reliable data broken down by age are
clearly needed.
How many lung cancer deaths are there in total
among never smokers?
In 1985 in the USA, there were a total of 83,854
deaths from lung cancer among males and 38;702
among females (77).In his Tables 6 an& Al,
Wells (5Y gives estimates of death~ rates among
never smokers which, if applied to the age-
specific population estimates of never smokers,
yield 1,907 deaths among males and 4,232 deaths
among females,, respectively 2.3% and 10.9% of
the total deaths from lung cancer.
TABLE 5 Numbers of lung cancer deaths per year among US nonsmokers occurring in the
population aged 40,79 based on Hirayama s (18) estimates of relative risk by age of wife
Risk assumed invariant of age Risk assumed to varyy with age
Age Relative risk Deaths Relative risk' Deaths'
40-44 1.45 32 2.76 69
45-49 1.45 40 2.76 85
50-54 1.45 58 1.72 79
55-59 1.45 89 1.72 122
60-64 1.45 119 11.12( 0.97 ). 39(1-11)
65-69 1.45 165 11.12(0.97) 54(i-15 )
70-74
75-79 1.45
1.45 170
185 0.190.97)
0.19(0.97)) -740(-1:.5)-672(-15).
Total 858 -964(299)
` Bracketed items assume common estimates for 60-69 and 70-79 age group.
Elsewhere C78!1, I have reviewed Uhe respectively,
reasonably
close
to the
proportion of lung cancers occurring among Wells. 0
never smokers in a range of recent Other authors have suggested!there are more or-h
epidemiological studies of Western populations. deaths than this. Thus in the 1986 NRC report: (4' i
This gave an average of 2.4% for males and 13.2% Robins quoted estimates of roughly 5,200 deathss
for females, equivalent to 2,012' and 5,109 deaths for males and 7,000 for femal!es among, U.S.
estimates of ~J
204

never smokers in 1985, while Repaca and Lowrey
(7) cite Kuller et al (36) for an estimate of 6000 to
8000 lung cancer cases each year in US never
smoking women.
Three points arise. First, there is consid-
erable uncertainty about: the number of lung
cancer deaths among never smokers.
Second, if the lower estimates, which total
about 6,000-7,000 deaths in the two sexes
combined; are used, then many of the epidemi-
ologically based estimates shown in Table 2 are
totally unreasonable. Even if (implausibly)
everyone were assumed to be exposed to ETS with
risk doubled as a result the estimated number of
lung cancer deaths occurring among never
smokers would only be 3,000-3,500, and yet the
four highest estimates in Table 2 all exceed this.
Third, none of the estimates of total lung
cancer deaths among never smokers cited above
make any adjustment for miselassification of
smoking status all' taking self-reported smoking
habits at face value. Starting with the first
estimate cited above of 6,139 deaths for the sexes
combined, one can readily calculiate that, if 1% of
ever smokers were assumed to deny smoking on
interview, this figure would fall by over a
thousand to 4,972. This underlines the
unreasonableness of the higher estimates in
Table 2.
DLS(1JSSTON
In the USA in 1985 there were some 120,000 deaths
from lung cancer. Although estimates of the total
number occurnng among never smokers of up to
around 12,000 have been cited, more reasonable
estimates seems to be about 5,000: to 6,000. I!n
attempting to estimate how many of these occur as
a result of ETS exposure, one has to decide
whether to base one's estimate on the
epidemiological evidence on ETS and lung
cancer or on the dosimetric evidence on exposure
to relevant smoke constituents of ETS exposed
nonsmokers and smokers. It is abundantly clear
that the two methods of estimation give very
different answers. Thus, while estimates based
on retained particulate matter give tens of deaths
and those based on nicotine or respirable
suspended particulates give hundreds, the
epidemiologicall'y based estimates all give
thousands of deaths. Which answer, if any, one
accepts depends to a large extent on the faith one
places on the. different types of evid'ence. Wells
(5), Kawaehi~ et al (6) and Repace and Lowrey (7)
accept the epidemiology essentially at face value
and pay little or no attention to its poor quality
and very obvious weaknesses. They either ignore
the dosimetric evidence (6) do not make iit clear
that it gives different answers and/or dismiss it
as inconsistent with the epidemiology (17); or
invoke mechanisms to explain the discrepancy
which are scientifically unappealing (5). It
seems to this author that the epidemiolbgical
evidence is untrustworthy and that, between the
two, the d'osimetnc evidence is preferable_ Of
course problems remain both in choosing the
appropriate index of exposure to use and in
selecting the appropriate dose response curve at
low doses (with the possibility of a threshold), but
it seems clear that this approach is better than one
which leads to such implausibly high figures.
When one restricts attentiom to lung' cancer,
to never smokers and to ETS exposure from the
spouse, one is at least operating in an area where
the epidemiological evidence indicates an
association. When one extends risk assessment
to other diseases, to ex-smokers and to ETS
exposure in the workplace one is stretching the
limits of what is science. There essentially is no
evidence on possible effects of ETS in ex-
smokers and little reason to expect that any
effects, if they exist, will be the same as in never
smokers. There is some evidence on ETS
exposure in the workplace, but this shows no
association at all with Iking cancer risk. The
epidemiological evidence on ETS in relation to
deaths from causes other than lung cancer is
unconvincing, and no scientific authority has
claimed' cause and! effect.
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