The investigators found that passive smoking significantly increased the risk of lung cancer. The excess risk was 24% for household exposure to tobacco smoke, 39% for workplace exposure and 50% for exposure in social settings. Of particular interest was the data that showed the women who were exposed in childhood and adult life had a risk of cancer which was more than three times the risk of non-exposed women.(Pharminfonet) .
Also, according to the Canadian Paediatric Society, second-hand smoke is linked with several other health problems in children, including lower respiratory tract infections, increased fluid in the middle ear, upper respiratory tract irritation, reduced lung function, increased severity of asthmatic symptoms, acute middle ear infections, tonsillectomy, sudden infant death syndrome, and meningococcal infections.(CPS News).
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In 1993 the EPA reported that passive smoking is responsible for approximately 3000 lung cancer deaths a year in non-smokers in the United States. The Science Advisory Board (SAB) at the .
Environmental Protection Agency has recommended that that secondary smoke be listed as a Class "A" carcinogen. The board based its recommendation on a yearlong review of EPA data on the subject.(Shanahan).
Dr. Steven Bayard, an EPA representative and author of the report said second-hand smoke is more dangerous to human health than mainstream smoke. He states that the smoke is not filtered, and contains a large number of small carcinogens, which are not removed from the air until hours after the smoker finishes his cigarette.(Alpert).
Dr. Christopher Coggins, speaking on behalf of the tobacco company R.J. Reynolds, calls these flawed statistics, stating that the EPA's "crusade against the tobacco industry" used methods in their research that were not standard scientific practice. He also points out that none of the studies that the EPA report was based on included actual measures of second-hand smoke.
