Passive smoking exposes children to lung cancer

CHILDREN exposed to passive smoking on a daily basis face more than triple the risk of lung cancer in later life compared with youngsters who live in smoke-free environments, researchers revealed yesterday.

The massive study, involving more than 303,000 non-smokers across Europe, found that living in a smoky environment as a child significantly increased the danger of lung cancer in adulthood.

Researchers, writing in the British Medical Journal, found that youngsters who experienced passive smoking every day for many hours had over treble the risk of cancer, compared to children who experienced smoke-free upbringings. Children who experienced passive smoking daily, but not for many hours, faced twice the risk of lung cancer.

Even youngsters who were exposed to passive smoking just a few times a week were one-and-a-half times more likely to develop lung cancer, according to Professor Paolo Vineis and colleagues from Imperial College London.

"Environmental tobacco smoke exposure during childhood showed an association with lung cancer, particularly among those who had never smoked," the researchers said. "The association was significant for daily exposure for many hours."

Of all those studied, 123,479 said they had been exposed to passive smoking and the researchers followed their progress for around seven years. They found that 97 people developed lung cancer, while 20 more had upper respiratory cancers such as cancer of the larynx.

Fourteen of those studied died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease during the seven years of follow-up.

The researchers also found that former smokers faced up to twice the risk of respiratory diseases from passive smoke than those who had never smoked. They suggested that this may be because their lungs were already damaged, making them more at risk to the effects of passive smoking.

The team concluded that the study reinforced past research about the cancerous effects of passive smoking.