Children who breathe second-hand cigarette smoke face an increased risk of lung cancer, even if they never smoke, according to a new study.
The research, which involved 624 people in Maryland suffering from lung cancer and an independent control group of 348 healthy individuals, found that the likelihood that a person who had been exposed to second-hand smoke during childhood had contracted lung cancer was more than twice that of a person who had not. Researchers interviewed the participants about their histories of exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke.
The finding was confirmed in another study conducted at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. That study involved 461 people who had never smoked, including 172 people suffering from lung cancer.
Those exposed to second-hand cigarette smoke during childhood were about fifty percent more likely to have contracted lung cancer, according to the data obtained.
The researchers acknowledge that it is difficult to track individual exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke from childhood through adulthood and that, as a result, the results of the study depend on the memory of participants and might, therefore, display a statistical bias.
Nevertheless, according to the scientists that performed the research, the results indicate "a strong and genuine association in two independent cohorts that will need to be replicated in other studies."
The study appears in the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
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