One-in-five women with lung cancer never smoked

TUC Risks magazine, 17th February 2007 reported that a recent study by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, and the Northern California Cancer Center, discovered that many people who have never smoked, suffer from lung cancer.

The study published in the 10th February issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, concluded that one-in-five lung cancers in females and almost 1-in-10 in men occur in people who have never smoked.

Their study used data collected in the United States and Sweden and it tracked the incidence of lung cancer in more than a million people aged between 40 and 79.

If the statistics are representative of the overall population of the United States, the authors infer that around 8 per cent of lung cancer cases in males and close to 20 per cent of cases in females are among wh have never smoked. The authors speculate that factors including environmental and occupational exposures to substances including environmental tobacco smoke, asbestos, chromium, arsenic and radon could explain some of the never-smoked lung cancers. Canadian doctors reported the emergence of more never-smoked lung cancers last year, and they concluded that the risk from smoking is dramatically increased if there are also exposures to some of these industrial substances, so many 'smoking' lung cancers also have an occupational component.

A TUC-backed report in Hazards magazine in 2005 estimated the workplace contribution to all cancers at between eight and sixteen per cent. It identified lung cancer as the most common occupational cancer, with known causes including: Arsenic; beryllium; cadmium; chromium; nickel; solvents, particularly aromatics (benzene and toluene); ionising radiation, including radon exposed uranium, haematite and other metal ore miners; reactive chemicals including BCME, CCME, mustard gas, plus suggestive evidence for sulphuric acids; environmental tobacco smoke; petrochemicals and combustion byproducts, including PAHs; asbestos; silica; wood dust; and some man-made fibres, including ceramic fibres.

To read the full article follow the link below
http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-12938-f0.cfm