Main page Statistics Risk factors Genetics Diagnosis
Blog Board News Directory Others


Secondhand smoke causes breast cancer

 Return to main news page

Breast cancer news 3/9/2005

    Scientists Air Resources Board have concluded that secondhand smoke causes breast cancer, a finding that could have broad impact on cancer research and lead to even tougher anti-smoking regulations. Women exposed to secondhand smoke have up to a 90% greater risk of breast cancer as per these scientists

    Although recent studies have linked smoking to breast cancer, no major public health group, including the American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute, has declared it to cause breast cancer

    A scientific review panel is expected to approve the report Monday and forward it to the Air Resources Board, which has broad state authority to regulate air pollution. The 1,200-page report analyzes new data on the extent of Californians' exposure to secondhand smoke and more than 1,000 studies of health effects from secondhand smoke.

    The conclusion that secondhand smoke causes breast cancer, particularly in younger women, challenges conventional current scientific thinking because most studies, until recently, had found no connection between female smokers and breast cancer.

    These California scientists based their conclusion on recent human studies that they determined had more careful assessments of long-term exposure to tobacco smoke. The report also gave more weight to toxicology evidence from animal studies than previous studies by the surgeon general and others.

    Overall, women exposed to secondhand smoke have up to a 90% greater risk of breast cancer, the report says. The report did not estimate the number of additional new breast cancer cases annually, and scientists did not calculate risk levels based on doses of secondhand smoke. Tobacco companies, in public comments filed with the board, say the report gives little weight to studies that found no breast cancer connection.

    A new surgeon general's report on secondhand smoke is expected this year.

    As per Jonathan Samet, an epidemiology professor at Johns Hopkins University and the report's senior scientific editor, the topic is still under review. He says It's controversial, and has potentially powerful implications for tobacco control and breast cancer control. So there has been tension over it.