Cable Forum - View Single Post - Should smoking in cars carrying children be banned?

**Hugh** · 17-01-2009, 13:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by freezin

Where were all the people who died, for instance from lung cancer? No, I don't think it has been proven.

I wasn't arguing for that.

I think smoking in pubs came into this because it has been claimed that passive smoking causes cancer. I think it's reasonable to ask, if that is true, why we didn't see non-smoking bar staff (and spouses) affected by lung cancer. I don't think the two issues can be separated.

Link1 Page 9 (World Health Organisation)
"meta-analyses have been conducted in which the relative risk estimates from the individual studies are pooled together. These meta-analyses show that there is a statistically significant and consistent association between lung cancer risk in spouses of smokers and exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke from the spouse who smokes. The excess risk is of the order of 20% for women and 30% for men and remains after controlling for some potential sources of bias and confounding. The excess risk increases with increasing exposure. Furthermore, other published meta-analyses of lung cancer in never-smokers exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke at the workplace have found a statistically significant increase in risk of 12–19%. This evidence is sufficient to conclude that involuntary smoking is a cause of lung cancer in never-smokers"

I have tried to avoid the usual suspect sites, like ASH, Forest, or any government websites.

Link2 (BMJ, re Coronary Heart Disease (CHD))

"Conclusion

High overall exposure to passive smoking seems to be associated with a greater excess risk of CHD than partner smoking and is widespread in non-smokers, suggesting that the effects of passive smoking may have been underestimated in earlier studies.
Further prospective studies of the association between cotinine (or similar biomarkers) and risk of CHD will help to assess the effects of passive smoking on cardiovascular disease with greater precision. In the meantime, our results add to the weight of evidence suggesting that exposure to passive smoking is a public health hazard and should be minimised."

Link3 (BMJ re Mortality amongst "never smokers" living with smokers)
"Adults who had never smoked and who lived with smokers had about 15% higher mortality than never smokers living in a smoke-free household
This study strengthens the case for a causal association between secondhand smoke and mortality"

Link4 - Estimate of deaths attributable to passive smoking among UK adults: database analysis (University of Queensland, Department of Health)
"CONCLUSION: Exposure at work might contribute up to one fifth of all deaths from passive smoking in the general population aged 20-64 years, and up to half of such deaths among employees of the hospitality industry"