Press Release WHO/29
9 March 1998PASSIVE SMOKING DOES CAUSE LUNGCANCER, DO NOT LET THEM FOOL YOU
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been publicly accused ofsuppressing information. Its opponents say that WHO has withheld frompublication its own report that was aimed at but supposedly failed toscientifically prove that there is an association between passive smoking,or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), and a number of diseases, lungcancer in particular. Both statements are untrue.
The study in question is a case-control study on the effects of ETS onlung cancer risk in European populations, which has been carried out overthe last seven years by 12 research centres in 7 European countries
under the leadership of WHO's cancer research branch -- theInternational Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
The results of this study, which have been completely misrepresented inrecent news reports, are very much in line with the results of similar
studies both in Europe and elsewhere: passive smoking causes lungcancer in non-smokers.
The study found that there was an estimated 16% increased risk of lungcancer among non-smoking spouses of smokers. For workplace exposure
the estimated increase in risk was 17%. However, due to small sample
size, neither increased risk was statistically significant. Although, thestudy points towards a decreasing risk after cessation of exposure.
In February 1998, according to usual scientific practice, a paper reporting
the main study results was sent to a reputable scientific journal forconsideration and peer review. That is why the full report is not yet
publicly available. Under the circumstances, however, the authors of thestudy have agreed to make an abstract of the report available to themedia.
"It is extremely important to note that the results of this study areconsistent with the results of major scientific reviews of this question
published during 1997 by the government of Australia, the US
Environmental Protection Agency and the State of California", said Neil
Collishaw, Acting Chief of WHO's Tobacco or Health Unit in Geneva. "Amajor meta-analysis of passive smoking and lung cancer was also
published in the British Medical Journal in 1997. From these and otherprevious reviews of the scientific evidence emerges a clear global
scientific consensus — passive smoking does cause lung cancer andother diseases", he concluded.
"IARC is proud of the careful scientific work done by the European
scientific team responsible for this study", commented Dr Paul Kleihues,
the Agency's director. "We are very concerned about the false andmisleading statements recently published in the mass media. It is nocoincidence that this misinformation originally appeared in the Britishpress just before the No-Tobacco Day in the United Kingdom and thescheduled publication of the report of the British Scientific Committee onTobacco and Health".
Further information on the health effects of passive smoking is available inWHO's Advisory Kit for World No-Tobacco Day 1998 on the World Wide
Web at www.who.ch/ntday, as well as from WHO's Tobacco or Health
Unit, Programme on Substance Abuse.

For further information, journalists can contact Igor Rozov, HealthCommunications and Public Relations WHO, Geneva. Telephone (41 22)791 2532. Fax (41 22) 791 4858. E-mail rozovi@who.ch or Dr Rodolfo
Saracci, IARC, Lyon, France, e-mail saracci@iarc.fr
All WHO Press Releases, Fact Sheets and Features as well as otherinformation on this subject can be obtained on Internet on the WHO home
page http://www.who.ch/© WHO/OMS, 1998 |Concept