BACKGROUNDLung cancer is a serious health problem in public. Its morbidity and mortality have been increasing rapidly. The mortality of lung cancer in women also increases year by year, in which most of the cases are non-smoking women, and the risk factors still are unclear. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of air pollution in room, passive smoking and other factors on risk of lung cancer.

METHODSA total of 618 newly diagnosed female patients with primary lung cancer were enrolled. The controls were selected randomly in the general population in urban districts. Two trained interviewers performed this interview face-to-face using the same questionnaire. The content of questionnaire included the characteristics of demography, history of passive smoking, exposed history of cooking fume, fuel exposure, exposed history of coal fume, history of using 'Kang', pulmonary disease history, cancer history of relatives and occupational history.

RESULTSPassive smoking in childhood was related with lung cancer of non-smoking women (OR= 1.81 , 95%CI=1.46-2.24). The exposure to the cooking fume was of great significance (OR=3.18, 95%CI= 2.55 -3.97). The relationship between coal fume and lung cancer was significant (OR=2.56, 95%CI= 1.83 -4.55). The pulmonary disease history including tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, emphysema was strongly associated with lung cancer (OR=1.80, 95%CI=1.43-2.27). The family history of cancer significantly increased the risk of lung cancer (OR=2.09, 95%CI=1.46-3.00), especially the lung cancer history in the first relatives (OR=2.46, 95%CI=1.55-3.90). After adjusting other factors, logistic analysis showed that cooking fume (OR=4.11, 95%CI=2.14-7.89), the pulmonary disease history (OR= 2.05 , 95%CI=1.08-3.93), and the family history of lung cancer (OR=2.89, 95%CI=1.30-6.41) were significant factors.

CONCLUSIONSThe results show that passive smoking in childhood, cooking oil exposure, coal fume exposure, pulmonary disease history including tuberculosis and family history of lung cancer are risk factors of lung cancer in non-smoking women.