May 15, 2003
Recently Published Study About Second-hand Smoke and Health Seriously Flawed

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Sioux Falls, South Dakota (May 15, 2003) – A new study about second-hand smoke and health is seriously flawed and contradicted by decades of credible scientific research that clearly and irrefutably shows a connection between passive smoking and serious health problems. The study, “Environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality in a prospective study of Californians, 1960-98,” contends that there is little or no correlation between environmental tobacco smoke, also known as second-hand tobacco smoke, and death from various diseases like coronary heart disease and lung cancer. The study will be published in the May 17 issue of the British Medical Journal.

The American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, and American Lung Association responses to the study are posted below:

American Cancer Society Condemns Tobacco Industry Study for Inaccurate Use of Data (PDF)

American Heart Association questions validity of new second-hand smoke study (PDF)

American Lung Association Questions Credibility of Tobacco Industry-Funded Study on Secondhand Smoke (PDF)