Women living with people who smoke take in five to six times more cancer-causing chemicals than do women who live in homes where no one smokes, a new study shows. The study is the first time science has shown how people may get lung cancer from secondhand smoke, say the researchers.
Secondhand smoke puts women at a higher risk for lung cancer, says lead author Kristin Anderson, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota's Cancer Center in Minneapolis. "That's been observed in many studies over time. We were interested in trying to find biochemical explanations for that higher risk. What we were looking for was tobacco-specific lung carcinogens, which can only be found in tobacco products." Secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 lung cancer deaths each year among nonsmokers, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA says your risk of getting lung cancer goes up by 20 percent if you're exposed long term to secondhand smoke. "We advertised for volunteers and found 23 women who had a male partner who smoked in the home as well as 22 couples with a male partner who did not smoke," Anderson says. "The couples had to be together for a least six months." None of the women smoked. Anderson and her colleagues analyzed the women's urine and found that the women who lived with smokers had five to six times higher levels of the carcinogens NNAL and NNAL-Gluc than women who lived with nonsmokers. Both of these substances are tobacco-specific carcinogens and are byproducts in the body of the tobacco-specific lung carcinogen, NNK. "That means they had higher levels of NNK in their bodies, a chemical we know in animal models is a potent lung carcinogen. It is also highly suspected for causing cancer in humans," Anderson says. NNK is broken down in the body into NNAL and NNAL-Gluc and is then excreted, she explains. The women also had five to six times the amount of nicotine and cotinine (a metabolic byproduct of nicotine) than those who lived with nonsmokers, Anderson says. "It's one more piece of evidence linking passive smoking with lung cancer in women," Anderson says. "The evidence probably applies to men, but we don't know that yet. That needs further research." The findings are in today's issue of theJournal of the National Cancer Institute. Anderson's study is important because it shows that the path of secondhand smoke to lung cancer is "biologically plausible," says Anthony Alberg, an assistant professor of epidemiology and oncology at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore. "There has been a lot of criticism of earlier studies that showed a link between secondhand smoke and lung cancer, saying that the lung cancer could be explained by things that differed in the households of smokers versus nonsmokers." "This study is an important study because it provides a direct link between exposure to secondhand smoke and the metabolites of tobacco," says Alberg. This is the first time that researchers have seen tobacco-specific elements in urine, he adds. People are not only at risk for lung cancer from secondhand smoke, adds Dr. Michael Thun, the director of epidemiological research for the American Cancer Society in Atlanta. "The take-home message from this study is that in public spaces regulations that restrict smoking are extremely important in reducing exposure of nonsmokers. "But clearly, it's a more difficult issue in the home," Thun continues. "People have to realize that nonsmokers who live with smokers are exposed to increased risk from a broad spectrum of risks," Thun says. "It's not only lung cancer, it's heart disease, respiratory difficulties in children, even middle-ear infections." What To Do Stop smoking. Now. If you can't, talk to your doctor about various programs and treatments that may help you quit. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. 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