Passive Smoking and Lung Cancer among Japanese Women

A case-control study conducted in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, revealed a 50% increased risk of lung cancer among nonsmoking women whose husbands smoked. The risks tended to increase with amount smoked by the husband, being highest among women who worked outside the home and whose husbands were heavy smokers, and to decrease with cessation of exposure. The findings provide incentive for further evaluation of the relationship between passive smoking and cancer among nonsmokers.