Let’s talk about tobacco. Cigarettes, cigars, secondhand, and smokeless tobacco products are all proven to cause cancer. Actually, in 1982 the United States Surgeon General’s reported claimed that “Cigarette smoking is the major single cause of cancer mortality [death] in the United States.” It’s frightening because this statement is as true today in 2013 as it was over thirty years ago.
Use of tobacco products has been linked to over fourteen different types of cancer which include: cancer of the lungs, mouth, lips, nose and sinuses, larynx, throat, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, uterus, cervix, colon/rectum, ovary, and even acute myeloid leukemia. One in five deaths in the United States are caused by tobacco products which equals approximately 443,000 deaths every year. The figures are very sad—actually the data makes me angry.
In case you’re unaware, use of tobacco products (with the exception of secondhand smoke) is completely voluntary. Yes, I said it. People do not have to smoke or chew. I hate to say it, but it almost seems as if people that choose to use these products are choosing to face cancer—especially since every package includes a label very clearly explaining that use of tobacco products will cause cancer.
Lung cancer is easily the most preventable form of cancer death in our society. Why? Because if people would just choose not to smoke about 30% of all cancer deaths and 87% of lung cancer deaths would be eliminated. Nothing frustrates me more than when I see someone smoking/chewing knowing that people die from seemingly unpreventable cancers every day. Why anyone would choose cancer is beyond me.
For more tobacco related cancer facts go to: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/tobacco-related-cancer-fact-sheet
Use of tobacco products has been linked to over fourteen different types of cancer which include: cancer of the lungs, mouth, lips, nose and sinuses, larynx, throat, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, uterus, cervix, colon/rectum, ovary, and even acute myeloid leukemia. One in five deaths in the United States are caused by tobacco products which equals approximately 443,000 deaths every year. The figures are very sad—actually the data makes me angry.
In case you’re unaware, use of tobacco products (with the exception of secondhand smoke) is completely voluntary. Yes, I said it. People do not have to smoke or chew. I hate to say it, but it almost seems as if people that choose to use these products are choosing to face cancer—especially since every package includes a label very clearly explaining that use of tobacco products will cause cancer.
Lung cancer is easily the most preventable form of cancer death in our society. Why? Because if people would just choose not to smoke about 30% of all cancer deaths and 87% of lung cancer deaths would be eliminated. Nothing frustrates me more than when I see someone smoking/chewing knowing that people die from seemingly unpreventable cancers every day. Why anyone would choose cancer is beyond me.
For more tobacco related cancer facts go to: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/tobacco-related-cancer-fact-sheet
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