The IARC Monographs series publishes authoritative independent assessments by international experts of the carcinogenic risks posed to humans by a variety of agents, mixtures and exposures. They are a resource of information for both researchers and national and international authorities. This volume is particularly significant because tobacco smoke not only causes more deaths from cancer than any other known agent; it also causes more deaths from vascular and respiratory diseases. This volume contains all the relevant information on both direct and passive smoking. It is organised by first looking at the nature of agent before collecting the evidence of cancer in humans. This is followed by carcinogenicity studies on animals and then any other data relevant to an evaluation.

And conclusions -- Introduction -- Estimation of environmental tobacco smoke exposure -- Hazard identification I: lung cancer in active smokers, long-term animal bioassays, and genotoxicity studies -- Hazard identification II: interpretation of epidemiologic studies on environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer -- Population risk of lung cancer from passive smoking -- Passive smoking and respiratory disorders other than cancer -- Assessment of increased risk for respiratory illnesses in children from environmental tobacco smoke.

How accurate are statements about smoking habits? This book presents the results of a comprehensive review in which the literature on the subject is newly interpreted. It is shown that smokers are misclassified as non-smokers in epidemiological studies often enough to explain the increased lung cancer risk seen in self-reported non-smokers in relation to their spouse's smoking habits. This study overturns the commonly held view that increased risk is a consequence of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and highlights the difficulty of making valid inferences from epidemiological data. No-one should draw conclusions about passive smoking before reading this book!