Second-Hand Smoke Increases Risk Of Breast Cancer In Young Women

Many Young Women Are Exposed To Second-Hand Smoke

IMS Observations    
If you needed another study to tell you smoking is damaging both to you and your children's health now and in the future, here it is.  Please seek professional help in smoking cessation; your daughter's breast health may depend on it.


Canwest News Service - April 23, 2009
By Sharon Kirkey,
Young women exposed to second-hand smoke are at increased risk of breast cancer, a Canadian expert panel on tobacco smoke and breast cancer risk has concluded.

"Even moderate exposure to passive smoking, such as living or working with a smoker early in life, increases a woman's risk of breast cancer when she is in her 30s, 40s and 50s," Dr. Anthony Miller, associate director of research at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health said in announcing the panel's findings Thursday.

"That is very important information people should know."

The 11-member panel says that active smoking increases the risk of breast cancer in both pre- and post-menopausal women, while exposure to second-hand smoke increases the risk of breast cancer in pre-menopausal women. They said there is insufficient evidence to make the link between passive smoking and breast cancer in older, post-menopausal women.

"Many young women are exposed to SHS (second-hand smoke), many continue to take up smoking at a young age and the average age of first childbirth is older than in the past, which may extend the period of enhanced vulnerability," the panel says.

"The public health implications of these findings highlight the need for effective messaging."

The panel was struck to provide an up-to-date synthesis of research on smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke and breast cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Canadian women.

Overall, an estimated 5.9 million people, or 22 per cent of the Canadian population aged 12 and older, were smokers in 2005, according to Statistics Canada's latest figures on smoking.

Although they've fallen, smoking rates were still highest among both men and women in the age group 18 to 34. One-third of men, and 26 per cent of women in this age group were smokers in 2005.

Source Link    
http://www.canada.com/health/Second+hand+smoke+increases+risk+breast+cancer+young+women/1526524/story.html