Bellou V, et al. - Researchers investigated if smoking-related exposures are linked with risk for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and if there exists any interaction between them, by conducting this prospective cohort analysis in UK Biobank, incorporating 437,453 non-related males and females of white ethnic background (aged 40 to 69 at baseline). A total of 802 incident IPF cases were found. Findings showed that active as well as passive tobacco smoking exerted an independent harmful impact on risk of IPF and worked synergistically. Smoking intensity presented a dose-response link with IPF, reinforcing the hypothesis for a potentially causal link.