For a very long time smokers greatest defense was that the causal relationship between tobacco cancer statistics was not causal that it was a variant that may or may not point to being an actual cause of cancer.
There is actually some truth to this argument. While most everyone on the planet is now in agreement that tobacco is just not good for you there is still not any actual concrete relationship proof. Plenty of people smoke and not all people get lung cancer. Does this mean that there is no causal relationship? The answer is clearly it depends on who you ask.
If you ask your doctor they will tell you to quit, period. If you ask the American Cancer Society groups they will tell you to quit, period. If you ask the tobacco industry they will tell you that they do not think that the relationship is real.
The Facts
What you are about to read are undisputed facts that have been determined through study after study year after year starting as early as the 1940’s. Much of the information that was available in the early days of research was surpressed by the tobacco industry.
Here are some pretty startling and incrimination facts:
1. Women who smoke are 27 more times likely to develop lung cancer when compared to women that have never smoked.
2. Men that smoke are 25 times more likely to develop lung cancer than men who never smoked.
3. Your lungs are not the only thing at risk from smoking. Cigarette smoke and or chewing tobacco can raise the risk of mouth cancer, throat cancer and cancer of the lips.
4. In the US alone tobacco use is credited with causing roughly 480,000 premature deaths from some sort of PREVENTABLE cancer.
5. Tobacco use is credited with causing 84% of the lung cancer deaths in the US in men.
6. Tobacco use is credited with causing 77% of the lung cancer deaths in the US in women.
7. Every year around 3500 nonsmoking adults die from lung cancer all of them have one thing in common they come from homes where one or more people smoke inside the house. Second hand smoke infiltrates their lungs and they wind up with lung cancer.
8. Nonsmoking tobacco users are at a much higher risk of developing mouth cancer, cancer of the esophagus, throat cancer, cancer of the tongue, cheek and lips as well.
9. Lung cancer among smokers is the leading cause of death when you look at all the other cancers combined.
10. Tobacco use has been linked to an increase in other cancers as well. Kidneys, liver, stomach, bladder, cervix and acute luekemia.
11. People are smoke are not only at an increased risk of cancer they also suffer from heart disease at a rate of about 49% higher than the nonsmoking population.
12. People that use tobacco products are 27% more likely to develop some cancer sometimes during their lifetime.
13. Poisons in tobacco can weaken the immune system to the point where leukemia develops acutely causing severe illness and death.
The statistics do support the idea that tobacco and cancer have a relationship. You can take a look at the facts below and decide whether there is a relationship present between tobacco and cancer. Whenever you read studies that are relative to tobacco cancer statistics the key terms that are used are “people who use tobacco products are more likely to” or “people that use tobacco products are at a greater risk for”.
At the end of the day it is all really symantics. There is overwhelming evidence that tobacco use plays a role not only in the development of certain cancers but in the successful treatment of those cancers as well.
Smoking is what people traditional think of when you discuss tobacco products and cancer. While it is one of the deadliest forms of consuming tobacco equal attention has to be given to smokeless tobacco which is just as dangerous.
Smoking has taken the front seat because it was at epidemic levels a mere 20 years ago. Today there are far less smokers in the US but there is still quite a long way to go. In the US an estimated 19% of all adults are still smoking. Tougher laws and tobacco company accountability has reduced tobacco use among groups under the age of 18.
Why Don’t We Have Actual Causal Information?
Tobacco cancer statistics are collected through surveys. Each time you go to the doctor they ask if you smoke before you have your exam. The reason that you and everyone else in the US is asked if they smoke is a twofold reason.
Smokers are more likely to develop certain diseases. So if you present at the doctor’s office with a chest cold and you do not smoke than it is pretty safe to assume that you may just have a chest cold. If you present at the doctor and are complaining about a chest cold and you do smoke the doctor may feel most comfortable with further testing just to be sure.
The second reason this information is collected so that studies can be conducted. It would be completely unethical to take a sampling of the population and have half the sample use tobacco products over an extended period of time and allow the other half not to come into contact with tobacco to see what health effects tobacco has on the body.
The only way to gather data and evidence that tobacco can cause harm to the body is to look at people that suffer from certain diseases and see what they have in common. Tobacco cancer statistics are put together over time and much research. Data is gathered and published. While the relationship cannot be proven to be a causal relationship there is overwhelming evidence that if you use tobacco products you are at the very least increasing your chances of developing cancer.
Chemicals that are naturally found in tobacco can cause an actual change to human DNA. Like a virus these chemicals infiltrate the DNA and wreak havoc.
A Word About Second Hand Smoke
In most places in the US smoking indoors has been banned because of the connection to cancer and second hand smoke. Over 45000 case histories of nonsmokers that died from lung cancer were reviewed in a Harvard School of Medicine study and it was determined that off the 45000 cases reviewed 89% of those that had never smoked and died from lung cancer lived with a smoker/s that smoked in the home.
With numbers like 89% of 45,000 perhaps saying it is a causal relationship may not be proper terminology for research purposes but those are pretty high odds.
Tobacco cancer statistics are very hard to ignore. Even the most scientific among us have to agree that there is a clear correlation between if you use tobacco products and whether you are at an increased risk of developing some sort of cancer. Cancer is an awful way to die, it is a slow death.
There are no statistics available that disprove the theory that tobacco use and the increased risk of cancer correlates with each other.