One of the next big smoking battles will involve smoking around children. A new study published in the British Medical Journal looks at the correlation between passive smoke and cancer rates. It doesn't appear to look at family history of cancer rates, however.

Smoking around your children increases the chances of them developing lung cancer as adults according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal. In fact, children exposed to passive smoke are more than 3 1/2 times as likely to get lung cancer later in life.

The amount of exposure to passive smoke had a direct relationship with the chances of getting cancer. Those that were regularly exposed to passive smoke a few times a week as children were nearly one-and-a-half times more likely to develop lung cancer while those who had daily exposure to passive tobacco smoke but only for a few hours were more than twice as likely to develop cancer.

The study examined the lives of just over 300,000 Europeans who were either nonsmokers or had stopped smoking at least 10 years ago. It then examined their exposure to passive smoke and tracked their progress for an average of seven years.

The study raises questions about what measures need to be taken to protect children from the dangers of passive smoke.

Professor Paolo Vineis, the lead author of the study added, 'Passive smoking clearly increases the risk of lung cancer. People should not smoke in the presence of their children.'

This is the same British Medical Journal who came under fire for publishing a report saying there was no correlation between passive smoke and lung cancer less than two years ago.

Of course, this movement is nothing new. Early last year Georgia pushed to ban smoking in private vehicles when children were present. It's all down hill from here, especially when the state starts telling you who you can and can't smoke around (even in the privacy of your own home).