Radon and Never Smokers

["Jim Nelson" <nelsonjima@HOTMAIL.COM>]

Interesting article recently published.

http://www.epidem.com/article.asp?ISSN=1044-3983&VOL=12&ISS=4&PAGE=396





Residential Radon and Lung Cancer among Never-Smokers in Sweden



Frédéric Lagarde1; Gösta Axelsson2; Lena Damber3; Hans Mellander4; Fredrik 

Nyberg1; Göran Pershagen1,5



>From the 1Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 

Stockholm;

2Department of Environmental Medicine, Göteborg University, Gothenburg;

3Department of Oncology, University Hospital, Ume;

4Swedish Radiation Protection Institute, Stockholm; and

5Department of Environmental Health, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, 

Sweden.



EPIDEMIOLOGY 2001;12:396-404





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



In this study, we attempted to reduce existing uncertainty about the 

relative risk of lung cancer from residential radon exposure among 

never-smokers. Comprehensive measurements of domestic radon were performed 

for 258 never-smoking lung cancer cases and 487 never-smoking controls from 

five Swedish case-control studies. With additional never-smokers from a 

previous case-control study of lung cancer and residential radon exposure in 

Sweden, a total of 436 never-smoking lung cancer cases diagnosed in Sweden 

between 1980 and 1995 and 1,649 never-smoking controls were included. The 

relative risks (with 95% confidence intervals in parentheses) of lung cancer 

in relation to categories of time-weighted average domestic radon 

concentration during three decades, delimited by cutpoints at 50, 80, and 

140 Bq m–3, were 1.08 (0.8–1.5), 1.18 (0.9–1.6), and 1.44 (1.0–2.1), 

respectively, with average radon concentrations below 50 Bq m–3 used as 

reference category and with adjustment for other risk factors. The data 

suggested that among never-smokers residential radon exposure may be more 

harmful for those exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. Overall, an excess 

relative risk of 10% per 100 Bq m–3 average radon concentration was 

estimated, which is similar to the summary effect estimate for all subjects 

in the main residential radon studies to date.



Keywords: case-control study; lung neoplasms; risk assessment; radon; 

never-smokers; cocarcinogenesis; tobacco smoke pollution; environmental 

exposures





_________________________________________________________________

Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com



************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.