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Health Officials Directly Tie More Cancers to Smoking  

A World Health Organization panel of 29 cancer experts reviewed scores of cancer and smoking studies and found evidence directly connecting smoking to stomach, liver, cervical and kidney cancers, as well as myeloid leukemia. The U.S. Surgeon General has so far concluded that smoking is linked to those cancers, but hasn't said that smoking causes them.

"These are [cancers] that had not been conclusively [linked] to tobacco smoking in the past," said Patricia Buffler, a researcher on the panel and professor of epidemiology at the University of California at Berkley. "We also hope the public will become aware that the mixture of tobacco smoke is really a very toxic mixture." Ms. Buffler said the links to stomach and liver cancer are most troubling because they are the most common types of cancer in developing countries. . .

A spokesman for Philip Morris Cos., New York, the nation's largest cigarette maker, said he couldn't comment on the report because he had not seen it. He referred questions about the company's position to a statement on their Web site. The statement says the company agrees that smoking causes lung cancer and other diseases and directs consumers to rely on advice from public-health experts when deciding whether to smoke.

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