BMJ 1998;317:344 ( 1 August )

Letters

Passive smoking and heart disease

    Authors need to analyse the same data
    Evidence on passive smoking and heart disease needs re-evaluation
    BMJ should encourage open debate of available evidence
    There must be better uses for money spent on vilifying passive smoking
    Authors' reply
See Editorial by SmithEducation and debate p   333

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

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Authors need to analyse the same data

EDITORIn their meta-analysis Law et al¹ reject results we published ^{2 3} on environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease, using data from the two large cancer prevention studies by the American Cancer Society and the national mortality followback survey. They reject our results because they disagree with our interpretation of data from other studies and because our analysis was funded by the tobacco industry (table 1).

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

By excluding our results Law et al discard 16 280 relevant deaths from coronary heart disease with spousal smoking data and retain 6600 cases. They give no hint that their meta-analysis includes under a third of the available published data. The reasons for rejecting so many data should be considered. If Law et al believe we have misrepresented the data, they should analyse the same data from the American Cancer Society and the national mortality followback survey, and report their results.

Law et al's . . . [Full text of this article]

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