Epidemiological Issues on Involuntary Smoking and Lung Cancer

Both case-control and cohort studies of passive smoking and lung cancer published since 1981 were reviewed to give concrete solutions for solving the problems of low-level risk assessment of this indoor environmental air pollutants and its potential carcinogenic effect.

Abstract

Both case-control and cohort studies of passive smoking and lung cancer published since 1981 were reviewed with the intent to make recommendations for future epidemiologic study of this controversial topic. The relative risk of lung cancer among non-smoking women married to smoking men compared to non-smoking women married to nonsmoking men varied considerably over a range from 0.75 to 3.4 dependent on sample size, histological type studied, type of questionnaire administered, case ascertainment method, country or nationality of the study population, and age of the study population [28]. Major possible sources of bias and misclassification have been considered by other investigators and committees [22,28]. Some new observations are made on these already carefully scrutinized data and an attempt is made to give concrete solutions for solving the problems of low-level risk assessment of this indoor environmental air pollutant and its potential carcinogenic effect.