ASH PR: Secondhand Tobacco Smoke More Dangerous Than Smoking Itself

ASH Press Release:
Secondhand Tobacco Smoke More Dangerous Than Smoking Itself
Implications for Women Especially Frightening

Scientists conducting a study on the effects of Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) say that secondhand tobacco smoke causes breast cancer and that it is more likely to cause breast cancer in young women than smoking itself.

"This study could have a broad impact on public policy, and lead to even tougher anti-smoking regulations and more lawsuits," says law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). The study was conducted by scientists for the California Air Resources Board.

Although recent studies have linked smoking to breast cancer, this is the first study to show definitively that secondhand tobacco smoke is a cause of the dreaded disease that kills 40,000 women each year in the U.S.

Breast cancer is now the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women, behind only lung cancer. It kills more middle-age women than any other disease. Every fifteen minutes at least three women will develop breast cancer, and one will die.

Professor Banzhaf stated that this study will have a major impact on women's health, and it makes it clear that women should be especially careful to avoid any situation in which they are exposed to tobacco smoke. This is particularly true for women who have a higher-than-normal risk of contracting breast cancer, including women with long-term ETS exposure, especially young women.

"Citing Environmental Tobacco Smoke [ETS] exposure as a known cause of breast cancer could have potentially devastating effects on the tobacco industry as we know it, and induce far more successful legislation to protect non-smokers from the life-threatening effects of secondhand tobacco smoke," says John Banzhaf.

There have been many successful legal actions relating to lung cancer and other diseases caused by tobacco smoke pollution, but this new research opens the door to law suits for breast cancer against companies which still permit smoking in workplaces, especially if the sympathetic young women plaintiffs can show that they have never been exposed to tobacco smoke in their homes while growing up or after establishing their own residences.

Banzhaf notes that the U.S. Supreme Court has recently upheld a jury verdict in a wrongful death action caused by an exposure of only several hours to secondhand tobacco smoke, and that the Centers for Disease Control have also warned that even brief exposure to tobacco smoke can cause death.

"The fact that breast cancer alone is perhaps the most feared type of cancer in women could very well be a powerful new warning tool which could be used by anti-smoking organizations, as well as those arguing for more restrictions on smoking," said Banzhaf.

PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 // http://ash.org

Presented as a public service by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH),
2013 H Street, N.W., Wash., DC 20006, USA, (202) 659-4310.
ASH is a 36-year-old national legal-action antismoking and nonsmokers' rights organization which is entirely supported by tax-deductible contributions.
Please credit ASH, and include ASH's web address: http://ash.org

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