Tobacco Documents Online

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ! I I I APf C3/09 175,5 UN-Pas~lve Smoking Coovnght, 19~8. The Associated Press. All ngnts reserved. Re ~nformal~on contained in ~is news reloort may not be l~ubllshed, broadcast or o~erwse dL~nbuted wrrnou~ the 13~or wnlffen authority of .,'he Associated Press. By GEiR MOULSON Associated Press Writer GENEVA (AP) - The World Health Organization has angnly denied reports ~n the Brrhstn press ~c~r d" had suDtoressed a s'l'udy snowng that secondhand smoke doesnt" cause lung cancer. Ar~cles ~n the London's Sunday Telegraph and Monday's T;mes of London sa~a the seven-year study was an embarrassment to the agency. Industry giant Bnhsln-Amencan Tobacco Co. said the ~udy ca~s '~Jrther doubt" on the hearth effect~ of pcLssive smoking. WHO countered in a statement Monday, saying the study had not been wrrnl~eid and that its deign was 11~e reason it could not conclusively link cancer wrth seconclhand smoke. "Passive smoking does cause cancer. Do not let them fool you," WHO said. WHO examined the effects o~ enwronmental tol:>acco smoke in seven European counmes, seeking to test results of earlier studies th~ found ~ncreased nsks of lung cancer for nonsmokers exoosed to smoke. The agency said it found about a 16 percent increased cancer risk in ~ass~ve smokers. However, WHO acknowledged thor this increase was not considered to be meaningful, because too few I:>eople were studied. This study coml:>3red 6,50 lung cancer i3~tients with 1,542 ineatthy people. Studies ~nfended to pinlDolnt small increases ~n nsk often must ~rudy many thousands of people in order to nJle out the pos~bilh~y thc:t the resutts were a matter of clnance. • If thLs stuc#/cannot find any sta'hsticalty valid risk, you have to c~sk whether there can be any nsk at all," said Bri11~ Tot3acco's Head of Science Chns Proctor. -=yen ~n contunction with I:revious studies over the last 17 years, the company sa~d the ~ucty doesn't snow any "meaningful" increase in cancer nsk from passive smoking. But WHO tOl:x:coo unrt chief Nell Collislnaw said the findings were consistent wffh earlier ~rudies - including three lost y&=r by Australia, Cai~fom~a and the U.S. En~ronmental I:rotection Agency - Mat add up to a "clear gloloal scientific consensus" that pass;ve smoking causes lung cancer, in a study released in October in Britain, rese~rche~ from the Royal London School of Medicine found that living with a smoker increases a nonsmoker"s nsk of lung cancer and hea~ disease 13y about 25 percent. WHO also said a paper containing the stuays main results was sent last rr~nth to a "reoutol:le soienl~fic journal" for rewew, fotto'~ang normal pre-puDlication procedures.