Child cancer link to smoking 'close'

Premature birth, low birth weight and admission to a neonatal intensive care unit were all strongly associated with a mother smoking during pregnancy.

The data was not strong enough to prove a direct link between smoking and childhood cancer. In fact, the raw data showed the reverse effect: cancer was slightly less prevalent among the children of smokers.

But Professor Bishop said that result was not statistically significant, while the other results were much more reliable. To be Continued...