Fathers' smoking increases risk of childhood cancer
Fathers' smoking increases risk of childhood cancer
Press release
Tuesday 18 November 1997 For immediate release
Children of fathers who smoke 20 cigarettes a day have a 30 per cent higher risk of developing cancer than children of non-smoking fathers. This is the conclusion of a major new study undertaken by Dr Tom Sorahan and a research team from the University of Birmingham (UK).
The study*, which is published in the December edition of The British Journal of Cancer, shows a significant association between the number of cigarettes smoked per day by fathers and the risk of cancer in their offspring. The risk increased with the amount smoked. For children whose fathers smoked 40 or more cigarettes a day, it was 60 per cent higher than for children of non-smoking fathers. The study found that the increased risk was not associated with mothers who smoked and could not be explained by social class, family size or paternal age.
About 1,500 children under the age of 16 are diagnosed with cancer or leukaemia each year in the United Kingdom. This study suggests that 150 of those cases may be associated with fathers' smoking. Dr Sorahan said: "Even though young men don't smoke as much as they used to, the study suggests that in Europe alone, there would be around 1,000 fewer cases of childhood cancer every year if fathers didn't smoke."
This is the third study by the Birmingham researchers into childhood cancer and parental smoking; all three reports indicate that smoking by fathers is a significant risk factor in childhood cancer. The latest findings were based on interviews with the parents of 2,567 children who died with cancer in Great Britain between 1971 and 1976 and interviews with parents of the same number of healthy control children. The interviews were conducted as part of the Oxford Survey of Childhood Cancers**.
Dr Sorahan said: "If the risk to children was the result of passive smoking, then we would have expected mothers' smoking to be at least as important as fathers' smoking, but it wasn't. The findings fitted with other research showing that smoking damages a man's sperm. Damaged sperm is the likeliest culprit."
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*Childhood cancers and parental use of tobacco: Deaths from 1971 to 1976, (T Sorahan, P Prior, R J Lancashire, S P FAux, M A Hulten, I M Peck and A M Stewart), British Journal of Cancer, 1997, vol 76, issue no 11, pp1525-1531.
**Oxford Survey of Childhood Cancers (National survey, 1953-81 deaths)
Dr Sorahan is a Reader in Occupational Epidemiology at the Institute of Occupational Health, the University of Birmingham.
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