Smoke & Cancer

Where there's smoke there's cancer. This is true of both cigarette smoke and automobile exhaust fumes, University of Cincinnati scientists reported last week. Dr. Clarence A. Mills, of a father-daughter research team (the other member: Dr. Marjorie Mills Porter), reported that "tobacco smoking is unquestionably and significantly related to increased lung-cancer incidence" and also that "heightened lung-cancer rates in every smoking category are further sharply increased for suburban Cincinnati men traveling 12,000 miles or more a year in motor traffic."

The Mills team checked 1,910 men and women and tracked down 531 recent deaths from lung cancer (with which they lumped cancers of nearby parts of the respiratory tract). They arrived at this breakdown: regardless of where a man lives, the smoking of pipes and cigars doubles or triples his risk of lung cancer; "moderate" cigarette smoking (16-35 cigarettes a day) multiplies the risk by four to six: heavy cigarette smoking by ten to 20. However much he smokes, a man who drives 12,000 or more miles a year in heavy traffic is exposed to exhaust fumes that multiply his risk of lung cancer by as much as two or three. And the rate is doubled for those who live in smoke-polluted, downtown areas like Cincinnati's "Basin" district. A heavy-smoking cab driver who lives there multiplies his danger by all these factors and runs a risk of lung cancer 40 to 120 times greater than that of a nonsmoking farmer.

As for the much-touted sex difference, the Drs. Mills found none. Women in city, suburb and country had about the same lung-cancer rates as nonsmoking men in the same areas. They concluded that the rate appears lower in women because fewer pick the combination of heavy smoking and driving in heavy traffic.

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