Objective: Most studies on tobacco smoking have focused on daily-smokers. Occasional smokers, who have never smoked daily, have often been included in the reference group of never-smokers. We have investigated the association between occasional smoking and cancer of the bladder, kidney, pancreas, upper aero-digestive tract and lung. Methods: The study population consisted of 158,488 persons, who provided information on occasional smoking, within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), 780 of whom developed a smoking-related cancer. We used Cox proportional hazard model, stratified by gender and country to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR) for smoking-related cancers. Results: The results suggest that occasional smokers have a higher risk of bladder cancer (IRR: 1.92, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93-3.98) and of the major smoking-related cancers combined (IRR: 1.24, 95% CI 0.80-1.94) than true never-smokers. Including occasional smokers in the reference group resulted in a lower risk estimate for former and current smokers. Conclusions: Occasional smoking should be discouraged. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
CITATION STYLE
Bjerregaard, B. K., Raaschou-Nielsen, O., Sørensen, M., Frederiksen, K., Tjønneland, A., Rohrmann, S., … Riboli, E. (2006). The effect of occasional smoking on smoking-related cancers: In the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Cancer Causes and Control, 17(10), 1305–1309. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-006-0068-9
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