Table 2.
Numbers of deaths from lung cancer in United Kingdom, 2006, by cause
| Cause | No (%) of deaths from lung cancer | Deaths from lung cancer | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not active smoking or indoor radon | 4664* (13.6) | |||
| Radon but not active smoking | 157† (0.5) | 3.3% due to radon§ | 86.4% due to active smoking or radon | |
| Active smoking and radon‡: | 85.9% due to active smoking | |||
| Current smokers | 532 (1.6) | |||
| Former smokers | 421 (1.2) | |||
| Active smoking but not indoor radon | 28 376 (83.1) | |||
| Total No of lung cancer deaths¶ | 34 150 (100) | |||
*Including any deaths caused by passive smoking but not by radon.
†Including any deaths caused by passive smoking and radon.
‡Cancers that would have been avoided by avoidance of either indoor radon or smoking.
§Mean indoor concentration of radon in UK is 21 Bq/m3.
¶Total number of deaths from all causes in UK in 2006 was 572 224. Indoor radon is estimated to cause 1110 (that is, 157+532+421) deaths (1 in 516 or 0.2% of deaths from all causes in UK).