Tobacco Documents Online

Pershagen, G., Hrubec, Z. and Svensson, C., "Passive Smoking and Lung Cancer in Swedish Women," American Journal of Epidemioloqy 125(1): 17-24, 1987. Seventy-seven primary bronchial and lung cancer cases were identified by follow-up of a cohort of 27,409 nonsmoking Swedish women. All but one of the cases were histologically or cytologically confirmed. Two control groups of 184 women each, matched to cases for year of birth, were selected from the original cohort as well. Control Group 2 was matched on vital status as well. At least 90% of the questionnaires were answered by cases themselves. Questions concerned smoking by husband and by parents, although it is not clear from the paper whether the question about parents reflected childhood exposure. For marriage to a smoker, and when both control groups were used, a RR of 3.3 (95% CI 1.1-11.4) was reported for squamous cell or small cell carcinoma. For all types of lung cancer, the RR reported was 1.2 (95% CI 0.7-2.1). The authors also claim that their data support a dose-response trend for squamous and small cell carcinoma with increasing smoking by husband. For all lung: cancer cell types, a RR = 1.0 (95% CI 0.4-2.3) was reported for parental smoking. The authors claim that their reported association between "passive smoking" and squamous and small cell lung cancers was not confounded! by occupation, urbanization or living in houses with a greater risk of radon exposure.