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Home is major danger zone for passive smoking

Richard Woodman

Last Updated: 2002-01-09 19:01:41 EST (Reuters Health)

LONDON (Reuters Health) - Non-smokers who live with smokers who average 15 cigarettes a day receive four times the exposure to second-hand smoke than do non-smokers who live in smoke-free households, researchers said on Thursday.

Scientists from the UK's Imperial Cancer Research Fund examined levels of the nicotine byproduct cotinine in the blood of more than 9000 non-smokers and their partners.

The findings, reported in the current issue of Tobacco Control, showed that cotinine levels rose from 0.31 nanogrammes per millilitre of plasma in those not exposed to smoke in the home, to 1.25 in those whose partners smoke between 15 and 19 cigarettes a day.

Non-smokers living with heavy smokers, 30 or more cigarettes a day, were found to have cotinine levels of 1.99 nanogrammes per millilitre, six times higher than in people not exposed to passive smoking at home.

The study showed that non-smoking men had close to 33% higher levels of exposure to cigarette smoke compared with their female counterparts. Socioeconomic factors made an even greater impact, with non-smokers in the most deprived areas having a 50% greater exposure than those in the most affluent areas.

The ICRF said the study, the largest of its type ever done in the UK, provides the "most damning evidence yet" that smokers are putting their loved ones at significantly increased risk of both lung cancer and heart disease.

"There seems little doubt that the home is now the major source of exposure to second hand smoke for most non-smokers," lead researcher Professor Martin Jarvis, from the charity's behaviour unit, commented in a news release.

He added: "These findings are very worrying as they mean that a large group of people are being exposed to a significantly increased risk of lung cancer and other smoking related diseases, but are probably powerless to do anything about it."

Tob Control 2001;10:368-374.

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