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• INTERNATIONAL AGENCY FOR RESEARCH ON CANCER DECLARES SECOND-HAND SMOKE CARCINOGENIC TO HUMANS 

In launching the IARC Monograph on Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking, the WHO cancer research agency, located in Lyon, France, puts a final stop to all controversies fueled at various degrees by the tobacco industry, and kicks off, in partnership with the French Minister of Health, a new era in tobacco control.

The scientific working group of 29 experts from 12 countries, convened by the respected Monographs Programme of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization, Lyon, France, has reviewed all published evidence related to tobacco smoking and cancer, both active and involuntary. While its conclusions unsurprisingly confirm the cancer-causing effects of active smoking, which an earlier working group had considered back in 1986, it also concludes its evaluation of the carcinogenic risks associated with involuntary smoking, with second-hand smoke also classified as carcinogenic to humans. The long-awaited publication of this close to 1,500 page-monograph provides all references to the studies published on this subject around the world. . . .

Second-hand smoke causes lung cancer

Nonsmokers are exposed to the same carcinogens as active smokers. Even the typical levels of passive exposure have been shown to cause lung cancer among never smokers. Second-hand tobacco smoke IS carcinogenic to humans.

Concern that breast cancer or any other cancer not caused by active smoking might be caused by involuntary smoking is unjustified by the evidence.

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