Your lungs need you
33% of the people who smoke die an early death because of it. Lung cancer is one of the main consequences. Every year a great number of people die from lung cancer or related diseases. Even second hand smoke can cause this type of cancer. Heart diseases, strokes and emphysema are also possible effects. The most common lung disorders as a result from smoking are asthma, chronic bronchitis, shortness of breath and Haemoptysis, the coughing up of blood or sputum that is blood-stained. Smokers expose their lungs to at least 43 cancer-causing chemicals each time they smoke. Tobacco smoke directly causes cumulative changes to the tissue lining the bronchial mucous membrane. More tissue gets damaged until finally a tumour develops. In addition to this nicotine depresses the immune response to malignant growths in exposed tissue. The length of time and the amount smoked are the two main determiners of a smoker’s chances at lung cancer. If a person quits smoking his/her chances at lung cancer steadily decrease since the damage done to the lungs is repaired and contaminant particles are gradually vacated. Smoking is directly responsible for 89% of the lung cancer cases. It affects both women and men. Previously it were mostly men who were affected but the rising ratio of female to male smokers has put this into balance. To establish whether or not a patient has lung cancer an x-ray can be taken. If this doesn’t show anything, a bronchoscopy and/or CT scan might provide more information. Passive smoking has recently been found a much larger cause of lung cancer for non-smokers than was previously suspected. So even inhaling second hand smoke can cause non-smokers to get lung cancer. This has already led to policy interventions to keep the undesired exposure of non-smokers to others’ tobacco smoke in check. The persons who are most likely to develop lung cancer are people over fifty who also have a history of smoking.
Fighting lung cancer can be done in different ways depending on the type of cancer cells, how far it has spread and the patient’s performance status. Commonly surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy are applied. Prevention is still the most effective and least expensive measure though. Therefore there have already been various countries that have carried out a smoking ban in public establishments. California was the first in 1998. Since then Ireland, New Zeeland, Belgium and other countries have followed the lead.
