Defending legitimate epidemiologic research: combating Lysenko pseudoscience

Table 3 Level of spousal smoking related to deaths from lung cancer and coronary heart disease among never smokers in California CPS I cohort as of 1959. Relative risk (RR with 95% CI) comparing persons with each level of exposure to those without exposure. Proportional hazards linear model (PHREG) is used and RR is adjusted for age at entry. Results shown are from Tables 7 and 8 of 2003 BMJ paper [1]. See note below.*

		Lung cancer (ICD7 = 162–3, ICD8&9 = 162)				Coronary heart disease(ICD7 = 420, ICD8&9 = 410–4)
		1 Jan 60–30 Sep 72		1 Jan 60–31 Dec 98		1 Jan 60–30 Dec 72		1 Jan 60–31 Dec 98
Spousal smoking (ETS index level) as of 1959	Subjects	Deaths	Age-adjusted RR (95% CI)	Deaths	Age-adjusted RR (95% CI)	Deaths	Age-adjusted RR (95% CI)	Deaths	Age-adjusted RR (95% CI)
	nn,nnn	nnn	x.xx (x.xx-x.xx)	nnn	x.xx (x.xx-x.xx)	nnn	x.xx (x.xx-x.xx)	nnn	x.xx (x.xx-x.xx)
Males
Never (1)	7,458		1.00	65	1.00			1,860	1.00
Former (2)	624			5	0.92 (0.37–2.30)			126	0.94 (0.78–1.12)
Current
1–9 cpd (3)	392							81	0.97 (0.78–1.21)
10–19' cpd(4)	513							99	0.86 (0.70–1.05)
20 cpd (5)	458							81	0.92 (0.74–1.15)
21–39 cpd (6)	129							27	1.16 (0.79–1.69)
40+ cpd (7)	45							13	1.29 (0.75–2.22)
Current – total	1,537			9	0.69 (0.34–1.39)			301	0.94 (0.83–1.07)
Ever	2,161			14	0.75 (0.42–1.35)			427	0.94 (0.85–1.05)
Females
Never (1)	7,399		1.00	51	1.00		1.00	1,053	1.00
Former (2)	6,858			51	1.08 (0.73–1.60)			1,059	1.02 (0.93–1.11)
Current
Pipe/cigar (3)	2,691							389	0.99 (0.88–1.11)
1–9 cpd (4)	1,102							183	1.13 (0.97–1.33)
10–19 cpd (5)	2,117							310	1.03 (0.91–1.17)
20 cpd (6)	3,288							412	1.04 (0.92–1.16)
21–39 cpd (7)	1,646							167	0.95 (0.80–1.12)
40+ cpd (8)	841							72	0.83 (0.65–1.06)
Current – total	11,685			75	0.93 (0.65–1.33)			1,533	1.01 (0.93–1.09)
Ever	18,543			126	0.99 (0.72–1.37)			2,592	1.01 (0.94–1.08)

*Tables C–G should be completed by Michael J. Thun, M.D., of the ACS to fully present results on ETS and lung cancer and coronary heart disease mortality in the CPS I cohort during 1960–1972 and in the CPS II cohort during 1982–1998 in a format that is the same as that used for the 1960–1998 CA CPS I results in the 2003 BMJ paper (1), some of which are shown in Table C.