[Just another Joe]

From the article.
None of the modified genes has a direct link to cancer, however, making it unclear whether these chemical alterations increase the risk of developing the disease.

And yet the title of the article is, "Smoking Smothers Your Genes"

What a load of cr@p.

[nightlight7]

{ --- From the article. None of the modified genes has a direct link to cancer, however, making it unclear whether these chemical alterations increase the risk of developing the disease.

And yet the title of the article is, "Smoking Smothers Your Genes"

What a load of cr@p. --- }

Good catch (thanks, the paper is behind paywall and the quoted admission is not in the free abstract). They simply picked yet another statistical marker for smoking (epigenetic) and established a mere non-randomized association with 'smoking related' disease.

By using epigenetic markers for smoking they wish to create an illusion that their result is from hard science (experiments, uncovering of biochemical mechanism), instead of being junk science, observation of a mere non-randomized statistical associations (which could imply mutually opposite conclusions).