New Study Supports Theory of Secondhand Smoke’s Effects

Chemicals linked to lung cancer are five to six times higher in the urine of women who live with smokers than in women who live with nonsmokers, according to a new study. The study in Wednesday’s Journal of the National Cancer Institute is the first to demonstrate that tobacco smoke carcinogens are absorbed by people who live in homes with smokers.

“A number of studies have shown a connection between environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer,” said Stephen S. Hecht, the Wallin Professor of Cancer Prevention at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. “Our study provides the first biochemical support for this data.”

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--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II