The Risks of Smoking

You have undoubtedly heard the warnings: if you smoke cigarettes, stop now, and if you don't smoke, don't start. Why? Because cigarette smoke is made up of over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known to cause cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, tobacco use accounts for 30 percent of all cancer deaths in the United States, and smoking is responsible for 90 percent of lung cancers in men and more then 70 percent in women. The ACS estimates that 28 percent of men, 23 percent of women, and about 30 percent of adolescents smoke.According to the American Lung Association, the more you smoke and the longer you smoke, the more likely you are to develop lung cancer. But the ACS contends that if you quit smoking when precancerous signs are found, the damaged lung tissue often may return to normal, oftentimes within five years.There has been some debate, however, on this subject. In 1997, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute concluded after a preliminary study, that just because people quit smoking doesn't mean they won't develop lung cancer at some point in their lives. The study, which was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, determined that 77 percent of the people who smoked at least a pack of cigarettes a day for 25 years had irregularities in their lung cells even if they weren't smoking at the time the lung tissue was examined. While those who smoked fewer cigarettes weren't home free, they were less likely to develop abnormal lung cells. Only about 15 percent of the people who smoked for less than 25 years showed similar cellular changes.More research still needs to be conducted on this topic, and most doctors still recommend that people stop smoking, no matter how long they've been keeping up the habit. This is especially true for people who have been diagnosed with lung cancer. "People with lung cancer who stop smoking live longer and have higher cure rates and lower rates of second cancers, which is a major problem for these patients," says Paul Bunn Jr., M.D., director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center and past president of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. "They also have lowered risk of death from other problems such as heart disease." Bunn says it's a myth that most lung cancer patients don't quit smoking; in fact, they have a much higher quit rate, he says.For more information on how to quit smoking, see "It's Quittin' Time" in the November-December 1997 FDA Consumer.