A rebuttal to criticism of" a quantitative estimate of nonsmokers" lung cancer risk from passive smoking".

摘要: We have judged the evidence implicating tobacco combustion products as a cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers by the carcinogen assessment-criteria set forth by the International Agency for Research on• Cancer and have concluded that there are sufficient grounds for expecting an increased cancer risk (Repace and Lowrey, 1985a). The only pertinent question is its magnitude (Moghissi, 1985), which we have estimated at 5000 US lung cancer deaths per year with an average loss of life expectancy of 17±9 yr per fatality (Repace and Lowrey, 1985). Other estimates of total mortality-from passive smoking range from> 4000 deaths per year [Russell, et al., 1936] to 10,000-50,000 per year [Fong, 1982]. Regulation of the five airborne carcinogens currently designated as hazardous air pollutants in the United States has been based upon epidemiological and biochemical studies, which although ample, are far less extensive than those implicating tobacco smoke as a cause of human cancers, and upon estimates of cancer mortality which are collectively two orders of magnitude lower than we have estimated for environmental tobacco smoke. In sum, it appears that that indoor air pollution from tobacco combustion products presents a public health threat of sufficient magnitude to merit serious concern by the public health community, by public officials considering legislation and regulation for the common welfare, and by citizens concerned for their health.