Lung Cancer Causes – Smoking

Lung Cancer Causes – Smoking

Lungcancer is the leading cancer killer of American men and women.1 Not all people who get lung cancer are smokers, but many people who smoke do get lung cancer. In fact, smoking is directly responsible for approximately 90% of lung cancer deaths.

By far the biggest cause of lung cancer is smoking. In the U.S. alone, there are an estimated 26.2 million men (23.5 percent) and 20.9 million women (18.1 percent) who smoke. These people are at increased risk for lung, breast, throat, stomach, and other cancers, as well as heart attacks, strokes, emphysema, asthma, and a variety of other illnesses.

Cigarette smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer. Scientists have reported widely on the link between cancer and smoking since the 1960s. Since then, study after study has provided more proof that cigarette smoking is the primary cause of lung cancer.

A person who smokes more than one pack of cigarettes a day has a 20-25 times greater risk of developing lung cancer than someone who has never smoked.

You may be familiar with some of the statistics, but if you, a co-worker, friend, or loved one is a smoker, it's worth taking another look at what cigarettes can do to our bodies.

Sadly, this is a disease that is easily preventable. If you don't smoke, please don't start. It is not only an expensive and messy habit, but it is a dangerous one. There is nothing good that can be said about smoking. It is guaranteed to increase your risk of dying prematurely and suffering needlessly.

Before cigarette smoking became popular after World War I, doctors rarely, if ever, saw patients with lung cancer. But today, lung cancer is the leading cause of death by cancer. Over 85 percent of people with lung cancer developed it because they smoked cigarettes.

If you smoke cigarettes, you are at much higher risk for lung cancer than a person who has never smoked. The risk of dying from lung cancer is 23 times higher for men who smoke and 13 times higher for women who smoke than for people who have never smoked. Lung cancer can affect young and old alike.

I will expand more on smoking and its connection to cancer at the end of this report, but for now I want to review the other less obvious causes.

Cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, including more than 70 that can cause cancer. Smoking can cause cancer almost anywhere in your body, including the esophagus, larynx, mouth, nose, throat, trachea, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach, cervix, bone marrow, and blood.

Some people think only those who smoke can get lung cancer. While it is true that smoking is the greatest risk factor for lung cancer, there are a number of other ways that you can contract this disease.

Stopping smoking greatly reduces your risk for developing lung cancer. After you stop, your risk levels off. Ten years after the last cigarette, the risk of dying from lung cancer drops by 50 percent which does not mean, however, that risk is eliminated.And, despite major progress over the past half-century, cigarette use continues to be the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States.

If you are a smoker, the unfortunate fact is that you will always have a much higher risk of developing lung cancer from any other cause than a non-smoker, simply because you are already dealing with the greatest risk factor: smoking. Adding other risk factors on to that simply means you are even more at risk than you were before for developing the disease.

Smoking cigars and pipes also puts you at risk for lung cancer. Cigar and pipe smokers have a higher risk of lung cancer than nonsmokers. Even cigar and pipe smokers who do not inhale are at increased risk for lung, mouth, and other types of cancer.