A quantitative estimate of nonsmokers' lung cancer risk from passive smoking

Contribution of passive smoking to respiratory cancer.

“…This calculation is based on the assumption that the combustion processes during both phases of smoke generation are comparable. However, this is not the case, as indicated by the higher SS values for CO (2.5-4.7), CO2 (8)(9)(10)(11), acrolein (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15), and benzene (10), and for the pyrolysis products of nicotine: pyridine (6.5-20), 3-methylpyridine (3-13), and 3-vinylpyridine . The lower SS value for hydrogen cyanide (0.1-0.25) also indicates that the generation of MS and SS is governed by different combustion processes.…”

“…The lower SS value for hydrogen cyanide (0.1-0.25) also indicates that the generation of MS and SS is governed by different combustion processes. The higher SS yields of the reduction products of nitrate such as nitrogen oxide (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10), ammonia , methylamine (4.2-6.4), and especially the highly carcinogenic N-nitrosodimethylamine (20-100) and Nnitrosopyrrolidine (6-30) suggest higher toxicity and carcinogenicity for undiluted SS than for MS.…”

“…Similarly, compared to MS, the particulate phase of undiluted SS contains significantly higher amounts of carcinogenic amines (2-toluidine, 2-naphthylamine, 4 ,ug [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] ,Lg [2][3][4][5] ,ug 6.5-20 ,Lg [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] ,ug The most widely monitored indoor pollutant originating from tobacco is carbon monoxide. In controlled studies of enclosed spaces where machine-smoking occurred in the presence of people, CO levels ranged from 24 to 220 ppm without ventilation and were lowered to 4 to 80 ppm with 6 to 8.5 air exchanges per hour (5).…”

PM 2.5 and Mortality in Long-Term Prospective Cohort Studies: Cause-Effect or Statistical Associations?

“…The irreversible effect of cumulative pack-years on height-adjusted FEV1 is 7.4 ml/pack-year (-0.0004 ml/pgl m3 cigarette smoke), plus an additional reversible deficit of 123 ml for a total of 308 ml over 25 years for a pack/day smoker. For a 25 pack-year woman smoker, the estimated effect of cumulative smoking is 110 ml plus a reversible deficit of 107 These estimated losses in FEV1 from 25 years exposure to an annual average of 18.6 lpg/mi3 are much less than 1% of heightadjusted FEV1 and are too small to measure with reliability. These results are not coherent Volume 106, Number 9, September 1998 * Environmental Health Perspectiveswith the group-level estimates of mortality, as one would expect a larger effect on morbidity than mortality.…”

Is passive smoking in the workplace hazardous to health?

“…An example is a paper that estimated the deaths in New Zealand attributable to passive smoking in the workplace (59). The authors used pooled risk estimates for lung cancer (60) and heart disease (24) and the estimate of Repace & Lowrey (61) that passive smoking in the workplace contributes approximately four times the load of smoke particulates that results from passive smoking at home, and hence four times the excess risk of diseases related to passive smoking. On this basis, it was calculated that in New Zealand (population 3.2 million) in 1985 there were approximately 26 lung cancer deaths and 152 ischemic heart disease deaths attributable to passive smoking at work .…”