Smoking ups lung cancer risk in women - study

Smoking can increase risk of developing lung cancer in women, according to a new study published in the May 14 2010 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. 

The study, led by Tang L and colleagues from the National University of Singapore, showed that smoking apparently more than doubled the risk of lung cancer in Chinese women, when compared to those who did not smoke or use tobacco. 

Previous epidemiological studies suggest that Chinese women have a high risk of lung cancer; it has been suspected that indoor air pollution from cooking and burning of incense and mosquito coils boosts the risk. 

In the current study, Tang and colleagues compared 703 women with primary lung cancer and 1578 controls for their exposure to first and secondhand tobacco smoke. 

They found that smokers without exposure to burning incense were 2.8 times as likely to develop the disease as non-smokers without the exposure to incense..  When the smokers were also exposed to incense smoke, the risk increased 4.61-fold. 

The researchers concluded that active tobacco smoking increases the risk for lung cancer, particularly when the participants were also exposed to other risk factors. 

On May 28,t he World Health Organization called for global action to protect women against tobacco use, which can be addictive and lethal. 

The WHO said tobacco companies are now aggressively marketing their tobacco products to girls and women. 

Tobacco smoke has been associated with an increased risk for a myriad of cardiovascular, lung and many other diseases including atherosclerosis, hypertension, vascular disease, stroke, and tongue cancer, lung cancer, gum disease, osteoporosis, asthma attacks, diabetes, and Buerger’s disease, among others.  

Women account for 64 % of the 430,000 adult deaths from second-hand smoke; tobacco use kills 1.5 million women each year, according to WHO estimates.

David Liu and editing by Rachel Stockton