According to a study by researchers at the University of Birmingham, published in the British Journal of Cancer, men who smoke can damage their sperm and pass the risk of cancer on to their children. The study indicates that up to 15 percent of childhood cancers could be due to smoking by fathers.

"Fathers who smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day had a 42 percent increased risk of having a child with cancer", Dr Thomas Sorahan of the University of Birmingham was quoted as saying by Reuters. Those who smoked between 10 and 20 cigarettes a day had a 31 percent increased risk compared to non-smokers, while those who smoked less than 10 cigarettes a day still increased their childrens risk of cancer by three percent.

"We started out with a very precise and detailed hypothesis - that a mothers smoking was not a risk factor to childhood cancer but a fathers is", Dr Sorahan said.

According to Dr Sorahan, the findings were striking and were clear even when other factors such as social class, whether the mother smoked, whether the mother had been x-rayed during pregnancy and the age of parents were taken into account.

(Note: Marijuana contains the same carcinogens as tobacco.)

HASSELA NORDIC NETWORK - Press release December 16, 1996