The Department of Health said the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health study was based on old data.

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The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, kept tabs on roughly 50, 000 men and women to assess life satisfaction, perceived state of health, anxiety and depression.

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In the American Journal of Epidemiology this month, Janet Hildebrand and colleagues reported on a large study looking at the effects of coffee on throat cancers.

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Scientists who work in the area of perinatal and pediatric epidemiology and who were associated with study but have now left, are looking on with a mixture of disbelief and exasperation at the staggering waste of resources and credibility.

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Dr Paolo Boffetta, of the Unit of Environmental Cancer Epidemiology of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, who worked on the study, said: "We do not really know if asthma as such causes the increased risk".

BBC: Women are at greater risk than men