Passive smoking--a new target of epidemiology.

Health consequences of passive smoking has thus emerged as a new target of epidemiological research and control of such important diseases as cancers of lung and nasal sinus, brain tumors, cancer of all sites and ischemic heart disease. The 16 years follow-up results of a large scale cohort study for 91450 non-smoking wives revealed significant and consistent dose-response relationships with the risk of each of these diseases and the extent of husband's smoking. The consideration of influence of passive smoking must be quite important if we aim to effectively control these diseases.