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SACRAMENTO -- California regulators ruled Thursday that secondhand smoke causes breast cancer in younger women, an unprecedented finding that could lead to tougher anti-smoking measures.
The state's powerful Air Resources Board, known nationally for groundbreaking rules limiting auto and diesel pollution, unanimously approved a 1,200-page report from California Environmental Protection Agency scientists that is the strongest indictment yet of secondhand smoke. CalEPA's finding challenges conventional scientific thinking because most studies, until recently, had not even found a connection between female smokers and breast cancer.
"I think that if we don't embrace these new conclusions, we're doing a disservice to younger women," says Andrew Hyland, a research scientist at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo. "My prediction is that in the months to come, people will see the evidence and change their opinion."
By accepting CalEPA's finding, the Air Resources Board officially lists secondhand smoke as a "toxic air contaminant" under state law. That begins a process that could lead to new restrictions in the state that already has the nation's toughest anti-smoking rules. Those could include reducing exposure in vehicles carrying children or in rental buildings where smoke drifts from apartments with smokers to non-smokers' units.
The report's key new finding is that women under 50 exposed to secondhand smoke had a greater risk of breast cancer than women not exposed. Women past menopause were not at significantly higher risk.
"There should be an even stronger effort to eliminate secondhand smoke exposure, particularly for our young girls," says Laura Esserman, a surgeon and researcher at the University of California-San Francisco.
Major cancer groups, including the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute, said the evidence is inconclusive. Breast cancer kills 40,000 women a year in the USA. "We're not disputing there's a plausibility that secondhand smoke could cause breast cancer," says Harmon Eyre, the cancer society's chief medical officer. "All we're saying is that the evidence has just not reached that level."
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