Second-Hand Smoke Increases Kids' Cancer Risk

Researchers at the Imperial College of London found that children exposed to passive smoking are at greater risk for lung cancer later on. The study involved follow-up on >123,000 individuals who never smoked but who had been exposed to second-hand smoke as children. The study's purpose was to determine how many of the participants developed lung cancer by comparing the occurrence of cancer in the participants with children who had never been exposed to smoke. The researchers learned that 97 of the passive-smoking children had lung cancer, 20 had upper respiratory cancers, and 14 died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. (The findings were published on-line in the British Medical Journal, February 1, 2005.)