title: Presentation: The risk of lung cancer in nonsmokers in the United States and its reported association with environmental tobacco smoke.
abstract: Is environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) causally related to lung cancer? In this study, 29 case-control and three cohort studies involving exposed and unexposed female smokers (as defined herein, an exposed individual is a never-smoker married to a smoker and an unexposed individual is a never-smoker married to a never-smoker) and nine case-control and two cohort studies involving exposed and unexposed male smokers, in which presence or absence of lung cancer is the specified outcome, are reviewed. It is pointed out that any attempt to make inferences toward such a causal relationship must account for the fundamental differences in these studies, which took place on three continents over 15 years and involved many differences in individual study design as well as in study subjects. Since this has largely not been done, the only conclusion that sensibly can be drawn from these studies is that the conclusion of a causal relationship is currently not supported by the data. This is certainly true when an attempt is made to apply a world-wide risk ratio to the U.S. population, as was done in the U.S. Surgeon Generals report (1986) (U.S. Surgeon General).
authors.affiliation: Department of Biometry and Epidemiology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston 29425-2503, USA.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Gross
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D012306:Risk; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution