Philip Morris
Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Lung Cancer Mortality in the American Cancer Society's Cancer Prevention Study II
Fields
- Author
- Austin, H.
- Cardenas, V.M.
- Clark, W.S.
- Greenberg, R.S.
- Heath, C.W., J.R.
- Lally, C.A.
- Thun, M.J.
- Cardenas, V.M.
- Area
- CARCHMAN,RICHARD/OFFICE
- Document File
- 2063635486/2063635688/Missing
- Type
- PSCI, PUBLICATION SCIENTIFIC
- BIBL, BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Litigation
- Iwoh/Produced
- Named Organization
- NCI Seer Cancer Registries
- Wk Kellogg Foundation
- Cdc
- Emory Univ
- Medical Univ of SC
- Natl Center for Health Statistics
- Wk Kellogg Foundation
- Named Person
- Cardenas, V.M.
- Daniels, D.D.
- Earles, A.
- Escobedo, L.
- Miraclemcmahill, H.
- Myers, D.
- Namboodiri, M.
- Park, C.
- Terrell, D.
- Daniels, D.D.
- Author (Organization)
- American Cancer Society
- Cancer Causes + Control
- Dept of Epidemiology + Surveillance Rese
- Emory Univ
- Cancer Causes + Control
- Characteristic
- ILLE, ILLEGIBLE
- Site
- R530
- Date Loaded
- 23 May 1999
- UCSF Legacy ID
- zqi67e00
Document Images
F.EB, 27. 1997 3; 03PM
Cencer CaaR$and Control, 1997. A, pp. 57-64
Environmental tobacco smoke and
lung cancer mortality in the
American Cancer Society's
Cancer Prevention Study TI
Victor M. Cardenas, Michael J. Thun, Harland Austin, Cathy A. Lally,
W Scott Clark, Raymond S. Greenberg, and Clark W. Heath, Jr.
(Veceived S April 1396; accepted in revised form 5 Augusr 1996)
N0, 2322 P. 3/10
Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has been classlt3ed as a human lung carcinogen by the United
States
Envirorunental Protection Agency (EPA), based both on the chemical similarity of sidestream and
mainstream
smoke and on slightly higher lung cancer risk in never-smokers whose spouses smoke compared with
those married
to nonsmokers. We evaluated the relation between ETS and lung cancer prospectiwely in the US, among
114,286
female and 19,549 male never-smokers, married to smokers, compared with about 77,000 female and
77,000 male
never-smokers whose spouses did not smoke, Multivar3ate analyses, based on 2471ung cancer deaths,
controlled
for age, race, diet, and occupation. Dose-response analyses were restricted to 92,222 women whose
husbands provided
complete lnformation on cigarette smoking and date of marriage. Lung cancer death rates, adjusted
for other
factors, were 20 percent higher among women whose husbands ever smoked during the current marriage
than
among those manied to never-smokers (relative risk jRRJ = 1.2, 95 percent confidence interval [CIJ =
0.8-1.6). For
never-smoking men whose wives smoked, the RR was 1.1 (CI = 0.6-1.8). Risk among women was similar or
higher
when the husband continued to smoke (RR =1.2, CI = 0.8-1.&), or smoked 40 or more cigarettes per day
(RR =1.9,
CI = 1.0-3.6). but did not increase with years of inarriage to a smoker. Most CZs Included the null.
Although generally
not statistically significant, these results agree with the EPA summary estimate that spousal
smoking Increases
lung cancer risk by about 20 percent In never-smoking women. Even large prospective studies have
limited statistical
power to measure precisely the risk from ETS. Cancer Causes and Control 1997, 8, 57-64
Key words: Lung cancer, environmental tobacco smoke, nonsmokers. United States.
Introduction
Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is a common air and mainstrearrr tobacco smokez and on the higher
lurig
pollutant to which many people are exposed, The United cancer risk seen in never-smokers married to
smokers in
States Environmental Protection Agency (El'A) has clas- 24 of 30 published epidemiologicstutiies.'
From lts pooled
sified ETS as a known (Group A) human lung carcinogen,l analysis of 11 published US studies, the EPA
estimated
based on the nurnerous carcinogens found in both ETS that never-smoking women married to smokers had
19
Drs Cardenas. Austin, and Clark sre with the Epidemiology Division. Rollins School of Public Health,
Emory Unlverslty, Atlanta,
GA. USA. Dr Thatn, Ms Lally. 5nd Dr Heath. JL are with the Department of Epidemiology 8nd
Surveillance Research. American
Cancer Society. Adsanta, CA. Dr Greenburg was formerly with the Rollins Sct,ool of Public Health,
Emory Unlversity, and Is now
with the Medical Unlverslty of South Carolln9, Charleston, SC. Address correspondence to Dr Thun,
Department of Eprdemlology
and Survcillance Research, Art+erican Cancer Society, 1599 Cllfton Road, NE. Atlanta, CA 30329-4251.
USA.
(D )9D7 0

FEB. 27, 1997 3:03PM
V,h.f. Cardenas ec al
percent higher lung-cancer risk than did those married to
never-smokers (relative risk (RRI = 1.19, 90 percent
confidence interval = 1_04-1.35). Because of the ubiquity
of ETS exposure, this corresponds to approximately 3,000
lung cancers caused annually by ETS among US never-
smo I:ers and former smokers, In addition to other adverse
effects on respiratory infections and asthrna from ETS in
children.`
Epidemiologic studies of ETS cannot make precise
measurements of RRs in the range of 1.2 for three reasons.
First, lifelong exposure to common environmental
pollutants such as ETS Is extremely difficult to measure
precisely, and misclassification of exposure may bias studies
towards the null. Second, potential confounding by active
cigarette smoking is so strong that the ETS association
can only be evaluated among lifelong never-smokers.
Third, the low background incidence of lung cancer in
lifelong never-smokers severely limits the statistical
power of even large epidemiologic studies, particularly
prospective studies. The two published prospective studies
of lung cancer and ETS in the US included only nine' and
153t lung cancer deaths among never-smoking women.
More than 1,000 expected cases are needed to achieve 80
percertt statistical power (1,014 cases assuming RR - 1.2,
a= 0.05_ two-sided testing, and 60 percent of never-.
smoking wornen exposed).
Despite these methodologic difficulties, accumulated
evidence from diverse prospective and retrospective
epidemlologic investigations is an important component
of the empirical basis for public health policy when
considered in aggregate and in relation to observations
from other disciplines! The prospective analyses
presented here, although limited in statistical power (247
lung cancer deaths among 288,000 married, never-
sznoking aduhs), contribute to this total pool of scientific
information.
Materials and methods
Study population
Lifelong nonsmokers (ne~er-smokers) In the analyses
were drawn from among 676.526 women and 508,576
men enrolled in Cancer T'revention Study II (CPS-II)
(Table 1).5-' Subjects were the friends, neighbors, and
relatives of more than 77,000 American Cancer Society
(ACS) volunteers in a1150 states, the District of Columbia,
and Puerto Rico. Enrollment was restricted to persons
age 30 and older from families where at least one partici-
pating member was 45 years old or older, Enrollees
cornpleted a fouNpage baseline questionnaire In 1982 that
included personal identifiers, demographic charac-
teristics. personal and family history of cancer and other
diseases, and various behavioral, environmental, occupa-
Jr8 Cancer Caucr.v a.>d Cuu<ret Vc1 B. PA7
NO, 2322
4/10
tional, and dietary exposures.
Subjects' vital status was determined In two ways from
the month of enrollment through 31 December 1989.
First, the volunteers made personal enquiries in Septem-
ber of 1984, 1986, and 1988 to determine whether their
enrollees were alive or dead and to record the date and
place of all deaths. Second, automated linkage using the
National Death Index (NDI) was used to extend follow-
up from August of 1988 through 31 December 1989, to
confsrm known deaths dur'sng the Frst sixyeats offollow-up,
and to Identify previously unrecognized dearhs among
the 21,831 (1.8 percent) people lost to follow-up between
1982 and 1988.8 Death certificates were obtained for 96.8
percent of people known to have died, and cause of death
was classified according to the Inrernarfonal Classlfficarion
of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) °
At completion of mortality follow-up In December
1989, 1.080,689 (91.2 percent) were still living, 101,519
(8.6 percent) had died, and 2,894 (0.2 percent) had
follow-up truncated on I September 1988 because of
insufficient data for NDI linkage. Follow-up beyond 1989
was not included in the present analyses because of
concern about increasing misclassification of exposures
with the passage of time since the baseline intervleu!
Endpoints
Deaths from lung cancer were defined as prirnary carci-
nomas of the lung, bronchus, or trachea (ICD-9 code
162), coded as the underlying cause from the death
certificate e We determined the fraction of these tumors
that might be metastatic to the lung rather than primary
by comparing death certificates and tumor registry diag-
noses for all (29) never-smokers who resided within the
National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology,
and End Results (SEER) cancer regtstries_ SEER listed
primary lung cancer as the diagnosis for 27 (93.1 percent)
of these decedents, For two. the primary site was listed
as unknown by SEER. We also reviewed death certificates
for 247 never-smokers coded as lung cancer deaths in the
spousal cohort, Histologic information was available from
115 cercificates_ Of these. 80 (70 percent) were classified
as adenocarciztornas, the principal cell type seen In other
studies of ETS.10 The histologic information was consid-
ered too inco:nplete to support separate analyses by cell
type.
ETS exposure assessment
Information on potential ETS exposure was obtained at
baseline only and was not updated during the seven-year
follow-up. The CPS-II baseline questionnaire provided
two measures of potential exposure. First, active smoking
by the current spousc, when combined with age at
marriage, reflected potential ETS exposure to cigarettes,
pipes, or cigars (from smoking husbands) or cigarettes

FEB, 27, 1997 3:04PM
N0, 2322 P, 5/10
ETS and lung cancer
ortly (from wives) during the present marriage. We
obtained the Information on active smoking directly from
the spouse and linked this to the Index never-smoker.
Spousal smoking was classified by status (never-, ever-,
continuing, or former), duration (years of smoking in the
current marriage) and intensity (cigarettes per day) at the
time of enrollment, and pack-years of poterttial exposure
during the marriage (the product of duration and dga-
rettes per day). Spousal Information provided our only
measure of the long-terni duration of exposure, which in
active smokers is the single largest contributor to lung
cancer risk.'"' Fewer than two percent of subjects were
excluded from the analysis because of missing data on
spousal smoking (Table 1).
Self-reported Information on ETS exposure was
elicited by the question, 'Whether or not you smoke, on
the average how many hours per day are you exposed to
the smoke of others: at home , at work , in
other areas ?' These questions referred to current
rather than past exposures and were often left'blank.' No
Information was reported in one, two, or three of the
self-reported fields for 18 percent. 30 percent, and 26
percent of women and 15 percent, 26 percent, and 13
percent of men, respectively. To determine whether
'blank' values should be considered unexposed or be
excluded, we compared the prevalence of ETS exposure
at home in CPS-II and in the 1988 National Health
Interview Survey (NHIS).13 Prevalence in the two surveys
was most similar (difference usually less than five percent
within gender and race subgroups) when 'blank' ETS
values in CPS-II were considered 'zeros.' Our analyses,
therefore, combined the hours of ETS exposure In the
three settings, considering 'blank' values to indicate no
exposure. Self-reported data on ETS exposure were
considered less informative than were the spousal reports
because of the many 'blank' values and the lack of
infortnation on duration.
$xc1 uslorts
Table I shows [he number of subjects and deaths from
lung cancer that remained in the spousal and self-reported
analytic cohorts after exclusions. All analyses excluded
ever'smokers, persons whose smoking was unclassifiable.
andthose who reported extant cancer (except non-mela-
noma skin cancer) at enrollment (Table 1). The spousal
analyses also excluded persons without a participat4ng
spouse, those whose smoking status was u.nknown, and
those whose date of marriage or whose spouse's age of
starting or stopping smoking were missing. Analyses of
self-reported ETS exposure excluded index subjects for
whom hours of exposure were unquantifiable- Exposed
women in the dose-response subarnalyses of the spousal
cohort (not shown in Table 1) were restricted further to
92,222 never-smoking women married only once to men
who smoked only cigarettes and who provided complete
information on years of smoking, cigarettes smoked per
day, year of quitting, and age at marriage.
Analyses
We used Cox proportional hazards (PH) modeling" to
compare lung cancer death rates in neverismokers with
or without ETS exposure. The principal contrast involved
exposure to spousal smoking (never- cfever-, continuing,
or former). Women were categorized further according
Table 1. Number of Cancer Prevention Study (CPS)-II persons and deaths from lung cancer Included in
or excluded from the
analyses, ACS
Women Men
Persons Deaths Persons Deaths
Total cohort 676,526 2,686 508,576 5,469
Exclusions:
Ever smoked
286,869
21190
365,275
5,173
Smoking unclassilied 34,140 95 16,139 137
Lung cancer at baseline 154 38 28 10
Other cancers at baseline 31,172 7a 6,012 22
No spouse In CFS-fla 103,776 113 15,510 18
Unknown exposure in marriage° 17,673 13 3,224 3
Spousal smoking unclassifieda 70,508 13 5,846 9
Sell-reported ETS unclaSsifiable° 42,655 43 10,435 11
Analytic cohorts
Spousal
192,234
150
96,542
97
Self-reported 281,536 246 110,687 116
° Excluded from spousal analyses only,
b Excluded from self-reported environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) only.
~

FEB, 27, 1997 3:04PM
V.M. Cardenas et ai
to the type of tobacco smoked by their husbands (ciga-
rettes only, cigars/pipes only, or mixed), years in marriage
to a smoker (I-17. 18-29, 30+), cigarettes per daysazoked
by the spouse (0, 1-19, 20-39, 40+), and cumulative
pack-years of exposure (I-16, 17-35, 36+). Dose-response
trends could not be examined in men because of Insuffi-
cient numbers of deaths.
We also measured multivariate RRs according to the
total number of hours of self-reported ETS exposure per
day (0, 1-2, 3-5. 6+) reported at enrollment. We compared
the lung cancer Rl?R in a subgroup of women who had a
smoking spouse and also reported ETS at home (n =
33,030) with the rate among women who had neither
(n = 41,817), reasoning that this group would have the
least misclassitlcation with respect to current exposure.
We also tested the proportional hazards assumption
during follow-up using univariate survival curves and
displaying the Kaplan Meier estimates in a log-log scale."
Adjustment for confounding
Gender-specific PH analyses controlled either for age
only (nine categories) or for: age: race (White cf non-
White); years of education (< 12, 12+); blue collar
employment (most recent or current job); occupational
asbestos exposure (yes/no); weekly servings ofvegetables'
or citrus fruit (carrors, squash, corn, green leafy vegeta-
bles, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, and
citrus fruits and juices) (S 2. 2 11,12-15, I6-2Q, 21+); total
dietary fat intake in quintiles;ls and self-reported history
of chronic lung disease (asthma, chronic bronchitis,
emphysema, tuberculosis) (yes cf no). A trend test for
dose-response treated the categories as equally spaced
ordinal variables in a Cox PH model.
Statfstical power and lnference
As mentioned, even very large prospective studies have
rnlnimal statistical power (or precision) to measure RRs
in the range of 1.2 for uncommon illnesses. The statistical
power of the spousal CPS-II analyses was 15 percent in
women and 10 percent In men (based on the above
assumptions, 150 and 97 observed lung cancer deaths in
women and men, and 60 percent and 20 percent of women
and men exposed). Despite the imprecision of the RR
estimates, we assessed wiiather the risk patterns were
consistent with those of active smoking and lung cancer.
We hypothesized that: (i) risk caused by ETS should
increase as long as the spouse continued to smoke, but
the RR should begin to decrease after cessation; (ii) risk
in the never-smoker should increase with indices of
cumulative spousal smoking; arid (iii) risk should be
higher fof-exposure categories that have the least amount
of misclassification (i.e., in persons married to smokers
who also report current ETS exposure at home).
60 Cintor CausrlauJ ConlroL Yol H. 97
N0, 2322 P. 6/10
Results
Spousal smoking
Fifty-nine percent of never-smoking women in CPS-I,1
were married at baseline to a husband who currently (27.6
percent) or formerly (31.8 percent) smoked during the
marriage (Tables 2 and 3). Proportionately fewer never
smoking men were married to current (10.3 percent) or
former (10.4 percent) smokers. Women potentially
exposed to spousal ETS outnumbered men by nearly six
to one, due to more men having been excluded because
of active smoking (Table 1) and fewer never-smoking men
being married to smokers (Table 2).
Demographic differences between persons exposed and
unexposed to ETS in the spousal analyses were small and
reflected gender and socioeconomic correlates of smoking
(1'able 2). Compared with unexposed women, wives
whose husbands continued to smoke were somewhat less
educated and more likely to be employed in a blue collar
job; women whose husbands had quit smoking were older
and less educated but otherwise similar. Compared with
unexposed men, those whose wives formerly smoked
were slightly younget; more likely to be actively employed
in a non-blue collar,lob, and more likely to consume vege-
tables more frequently and fatty foods less often-
Women had potentially greater exposure to ETS from
spousal smoking than did men. The number of cigarettes
per day, years ofsmoking, and cumulative pack-years was
approximately one-third larger in husbands who smoked
than in wives who smoked.
Table 3 presents age-adjusted death rates and RRs for
lung cancer, plus multivariate RRs and 95 percent confi-
dence intervals (CI) adjusted for age, race, education, diet,
occupational asbestos exposure, and a history of chronic
lung disease. Never-smoking women whose husbands
ever smoked during the current marriage had 20 percent
higher death rates from lung cancer than did those married
to never-smokers (rnultivarlate RR - 1.2, CI = 0,8-1.6)
(Table 3). The multivariate RR was similar or higher when
the husband continued to smoke (RR = 1.2. CI = 0.8-1.8)
or smoked cigars or pipes (RR = 1.5, CI ~ 0.8-2.9). For
never-smoking rnen whose wives smoked. the RR was
1.1 (CI - 0.6-1.8). although this estimate was based on
only eight lung cancer deaths. None of the CIs excluded
the null (Table 3),
Dose-response spousa} subcohort
Compared with never-smoking women whose husbands
did not smoke during the marriage, the lung cancer risk
among never-smoking wornen married to cigarette smokers
increased with cigarettes per day and with pack-years of
spousal smoking but not with years in marriage to a
smoker (Table 4). Women whose husbands smoked 40 or
more cigarettes per day had the highest risk (RR = 1.9,

FEB, 27. 1997 3; 05PM
Table 2. Demographic characteristics of lifelong never-smokers in spousal cohort, ACS
N0, 2322 P. 7/10
ETS and lung cancer
Women (n = 192,234) Men (n a 96,542)
Ever-smoking
spouse Never-smoking
spouse Ever-smoking
spouse Never-smoking
spouse
People (no.) 114,286 77,948 19,649 76,993
People (%) 59.5 40.5 20.2 79.8
Age (mean yrs) 55.1 54.2 56.1 57.2
White (%) 95.4 95.2 94.5 95.0
Blue collar worker (olo) 8.4 7_1 21.3 28.0
Education
(% < 12 yrs)
11,1
8.7
9.1
12,2
Dietary vegetabfes (%)g
1 (least)
3.9
3.2
4.4
4.2
2 20.3 18.4 24.9 24,9
3 19.6 19.0 21.2 21.0
4 23.8 24,5 22.6 23.3
5 (most) 24.0 26.8 20.5 20.4
Dietary fat (%)b
1 (least)
13.9
13.3
12_5
10.9
2 20.5 20.0 17_7 15.6
3 . 20.9 20.8 16-0 17,4
4 19.5 20.4 20.2 21.0
5 (most) 16.8 17.4 25.2 28.9
lncomplete nutrition data 8.4 8.1 6.4 6.2
° Vegetable consumption categories defined as <2, 2-11. 12-15, 16-20, 21+ servings per week.
° Fat consumption Index defined by quintiles estimated frorri fat content of 18 foods, average
portion size for age and
gender, and frequency of con5umption.1Z
Table 3. Lung cancer death rates among married lifelong never-smokers in CPS-li according to smoking
by the spouse, ACS
Spousal smoking habits No, of people No. of tung
cancer de®ths Age-adjusted
rate ratioa Multivarlate
rate retiosb (CI)°
Women
Never smoked
77,948
54
1.0
1,0
-
Ever smoked 114,286 96 1.2 1.2 (0.8-1.6)
Continuing smoking
Any type
53,139
44
1,3
1 _2
(0_8-~.8)
Cigarette only 33,371 28 1.3 1.2
Clgarlpipe only 9,794 11 1.5 1.5 (0.8-2.9)
Mixed 9,974 7 1_0 1.0 (0_5-2_2)
Former smoking
Any type
61,147
52
1.1
1.1
(0.6-1.6)
Cigarette only 43,563 39 1.2 1.2 (0.8-1.8)
Cigarlpipe only 6,810 7 1.3 1.3 (0.6-2.8)
Mixed 10,77d 6 0.7 0.7 (0.3-1 _7)
Men
Never smoked
76,993
79
1.0
1.0
--
Ever smoked 19,549 18 1.0 1,1 (0.8-1.8)
Continuing cigarettes 9,492 8 1.0 1.0 (0.5-2.0)
Former cigarettes 10.057 10 1.1 1.1 (0.6-2.2)
H From Cox PH model adjusted only ior age.
b From Cox PH model adjusted for age, race, education, dietary consumption of vegetables, and total
fat, asbestos
exposure, blue collar employment, and history of chronic lung disease.
` Ci w 95°!o coniidence Interval.
G Cancce Cau- and Cnn-k_ Vol 8_ 1497 61

FEB. 27. 1997 3; 05PM
.
VM. Cardenas et al
NO. 2322 P, 8/10
Table 4. Number of lung cancer deaths, person-years (PY) at risk, and rate ratios {RR) with 95
percent confidence intenrals
(Ci) among never-smoking women according to various Indices of spousal smoking, ACS
No. of women
Cigarettes per day by spousaa
Lung cancers
PY
Rab
0 46,149 30 333,9d6 1.0
1-19 11,467 9 83,074 1,1 0.5-22
20-39 24,735 22 179,751 1.2 0.7-2.2
40+ 9,871 13 71,618 1.9 1.0-3.6
0
03
db P
T
Years In marriage to smokera ` .
=
ren
0
1-17 46,149
14,794 30
13 344,946
107,681 1.0
1.5 0.8-2.9
16-29 15,491 14 112,761 1.6 0.8-2_8
30+ 15,788 17 114,002 1.1 0.6-2.1
Pack-years oi exposurea
b
46,149
30
334,946,
1.0 Trende P = 0.5
-
1-16 15,451 10 112,318 1.0 0.6-2.1
17-35 15,569 16 113,119 1.5 0.8-2_7
36+ 15,053 18 109.006 1.5 0.6-2.6
Trendb P= 0.1
a The referent group lnciudes never-smoking women married to husbands who did not smoke during the
marriage. The exposed
categories are split into approximate tertlles. and are restricted to never-smokers married to
cigarette smokers with complete
smoking data, married only once, and with valid information on age at marriage.
b From a Cox PH model adjusted for age, race, education, dietary consumption of vegetables and total
lat, asbestos exposure,
blue collar employment, and history of chronic lung disease.
CI - 1.0-3.6, P trend ~ 0.03). Restricting the dose-response
analysis to women whose current husbands continued to
smoke in 1982 reduced the number of lung cancer deaths
and the trend. With this restriction, women whose
husbands smoked 20 to 39 cigarettes per day experienced
10 lung cancer deaths, (RR = 1.6, CI = 0.8-3.3); those
whose husbands smoked 40+ cigarettes per day had two
lung cancer deaths (RR = 0.9, CI = 0.Z-4.0, P trend = 0.3).
Dose-response trends could riot be examined in the men
because of a statistically insufficient number of lung
cancer deaths.
Other ana7yscs
The association between lung cancerand spousal smoking
was not stronger among women whose husbands
currently smoked and who also reported ETS exposure
at horne (RR - 1.2, CI = 0.7-2.2). This was based on only
23 exposed cases and had limited precision. The corre-
sponding RRs among men with concordant exposure data
could not be examined (two exposed cases).
None of the self-reported current ETS exposure
measures (any exposure or total hours of exposure) was
associated with increased lung cancer risk. Multivariate
RRs among women who reported 0, l,-2, 3-5, or 6+ hours
of ETS per day in all settings were 1.0, 0.8, 0.7, and 1.1
based on 175, 19, 11, and 31 lung cancers, respectively.
Corresponding RRs in men were 1-0, 0.6, 1.0, and 1.3
based on 74, 20, 8, and 141ur1g cancer deaths, respectively.
62 Canccr Cnuaxa nncl Controi. Val A, 1J`J7
Graphs of the univariate survival curves associated with
spousal ETS exposure Indicated that the mortality rate
ratios were approximately constant d uring the seven years
of follow-up In CPS II. Further, the assumption of
proportional haxards did rlot appear to be violated 3n any
of the Cox models.
l3iscussion
Our principal finding was that never-smoking women
married to husbands who ever smoked during the
marriage had 20 percent higher death rates from lung
cancer than those married to never-smokers. Risk was
similar or increased when the husbands continued to
smoke. smoked more cigarettes per day, or exceeded 35
pack-years of cigarettes during the marriage. Although
only one dose-response trend was statistically sfgnificvlt,
the magnitude and dlrection of risk were similar to the
pooled value from other US studies,' and paralleled tern-
poral patterns seen with active smoking, risk Increasing
with sustained cumulative (pack-years) of exposure and
the RR decreasing with cessation.
These results should be interpreted in the context of
three lines of evidence cited by the EPA and other scien-
tific groups as support for the carcinogenicity of
ETS.''i,'G"O Flrst, most of the 3,800 chemicals found in
mainstream tobacco smoke (MS) also occur in sidestream
smoke (SS). ETS contains both SS and exhaled MS. At

FEB, 27, 1997 3:06PM
least 42 chemicals identified in MS and SS are known to
cause cancer In experlmental animals and/or humans! MS
accounts for 87 percent of lung cancer in the general
population. No threshold is seen in the dose-response
relation between active smoking and lung cancer; extrapo-
lation of risk from active smokers to ETS predicts risk
estimates In the rage of an RR between 1,03 and 1.36.14
Second, biologic markers of inhaled tobacco smoke
show that never-smokers exposed to ETS absorb and
metabolize measurable amounts of tobacco smoke.' 2`si'
Average concentrations of nicotine and its merabolite
cotinlne in ETS-exposed urban never-smokers are about
0.1-1.0 percent of those seen in active cigarette smokers,
although certain components of tobacco smoke are
produced disproportionately in SS.1 A tobacco-specific
lung carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridy)-1-
butanone (NNK) also has been measured In the urine of
ETS-exposed men18 and occurs at higher concentrations
in sidestream than in mainstream smoke.'G NNK causes
pulmonary adenocarclnorna in rodents and may contrib-
ute to the excess of lung adenocarcinomas in ETS-exposed
never-smokers,1°"zZ
Third, most published epidemiologic studies of ETS
find higher lung cancer risk among never-smoking
women whose husbands smoke than among those.
married to never-smokers. The EPA report discussed 30
published studies encompassing more than 3,000 luirg
cancer cases from eight different countries.' Twenty-four
(80.0 percent) of these studies found higher risk of lung
cancer among wives whose husbands ever smoked; nine
were statistlcally significant. Since the EPA report there
have been four additional or expanded US studies,1D2''z5
plus three new studies in Clrina."6 The new US studies,
counting CPS-II, add over 1,200 lung cancer cases studied
in never-smokers. Their results are generally consistent
despite low statistical power and large variations In design,
location, arrd analytic methods In individual studies.
The CPS-11 exposure data were much less detailed than
in case-control studies designed specifically to examine
the ETS hypothesis.10'Z3'" Although Information on
spousal smoking was our best and only indication of
long-term potential ETS exposure, this, too, was Imper-
fect. We lacked information on spousal smoking during
previous marriages, smoking by other family members
or Irousemates, proximity to the scnoker, changes In the
number of cigarettes per day smoked by the spouse, and
childhood exposure to ETS. No biologic measurements
were obtained to validate absorption of ETS. Our analyses
could not integrate potential exposure to a smoking
spouse with past or present exposure in other settings.
The resultant random misclassification of ETS exposure
could bias our results towards the null.
Even large prospective studies such as CPS-11 have
limited statistical precision (wide confidence intervals)
N0, 2322 P. 9/10
E]-S and lung cancer
when measuring uncommon diseases in a small fraction
of the population. Because only two percent of men and
eight percent of women in CPS-II were never-smokers
married lo currently smoking spouses, we traced 676,526
women for seven years to find 1501ung cancer deaths in
the subgroup of interest. By contrast, the largest retro-
spective study10 identified 653 incident lung cancers in
married, never-smoking women in five US cities with a
base population of approximately 18,500,000 women.
Most other studies of L"TS have fewer cases of lung cancer
in never-smoking women than CPS-II. The conclusion
of some small studies does not always appropriately
reflect their 3mprecision. For example, a recent hospital-
based case-controi study of 41 lung cancer cases in
never-smoking men (I2R. = 1.E0, CI ~ 0.67-3.82) and 117
cases in women (RR - 1.08, CI = 0,60-1.94)Z5 concluded
'little indication of an association' between ETS and lung
cancer, despite the overlap in confidence intervals between
the study results and the EPA pooled estirtrate.'
CPS-11 avoids several biases that have been hypothe-
sized to weaken retrospeciiYe studies a8''z Spouses
described their smoking habits at baseline, before lung
cancer had beenn diagnosed ln tlreir partners. This avoids
recall bias (awareness of disease influencing the reporting
of ETS) and Information bias (deceased cases being
described by next-of-kin but controls describing thern-
selves). Since the analysis identified only married couples,
no bias was introduced as a result of married and unmar-
ried persons describing ETS exposure differently.30 Small
demographic differences were apparent between persons
exposed or unexposed to spousal smoking in CPS-II_
AdJusting for age, race, vegetable and total fat consurnp-
tion, education, occupational exposure to asbestos, and
prior lung disease had minimal effect on the association
with ETS.
Our results pertain largely to lung cancer among never5-
smoking women married to smoking men. Too few
never-smoking men were married to smokers and insuf-
ficient inforrnation is available on their ETS exposure
outside the home to Interpret the data on CPS-11 men.
Because CPS-II was limited to adults, it also lacks infor-
mation on adverse ETS-related effects In children such as
pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, and middle ear effusions.
Such nonmalignant effects may greatly outnumber lung
cancer deaths. EPA estimated that ETS caused approxi-
mately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually among US
never-smokers (assurning RR = 1.19) and former smokers,
compared with 150,000 to 300,000 cases of bronchitis and
pneumonia In lnfants and children up to 18 months of
age, and 200,000 to 1,000,000 children whose asthma
would be worsened by ETS.'
In summary, our findings contribute to the overall
evidence that ETS exposure from smoking spouses may
adversely affect lung cancer risk in never-smoking women.
11~Cnncc~ V.,i a,s1c7 6Z

FEB, 27. 1997 3:07PM
VM. Cardenss et al
Acknowledgements - The authors arc grateful for the
cooperation of the principal Investigators of NCI SEER
Cancer Registries, and Dr Christina Park, from CDC's
National Center for Health Statistics for prompt re-
plies to our inquiries. The authors also thank Audrey
Earles for preparation of the manuscript. Mohan Nam-
boodiri, Heidi Miracle-McMahlll, Diane TerreIl, and
Dena Myers for programming support, and Do111e D.
Daniels and Luis Escobedo for their dedicated editing.
Dr Cardenas is recipient of WK Kellogg Foundation
and Emoty University financial awards.
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