Health Education, Multimedia Development & Graphic Design
Healthfinder is a resource provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It is designed to help the public find credible health information on the web.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States today (7). It is one of the few cancers with mortality rates that continue to increase (8). Survival rates for lung cancer are very low with a five-year survival rate of 15%, and early detection has not yet been proven to improve survival rates (7). Eighty-seven percent (87%) of lung cancers are caused by smoking (8). In fact, smoking is the most important source of preventable morbidity worldwide (9). Smoking is responsible for one in every five deaths in the United States today (9). Approximately 25% of adults in the U.S. smoke and 90% of them began smoking in their teens. Half were addicted by age 18 (9). Nicotine is the addictive drug found in tobacco and is 10 times more addictive than heroin (10). Seventy percent (70%) of current smokers want to quit and 34% of them try. Unfortunately, only 2.4% of smokers are successful in their attempts to quit (9). It's better to never start.
The most important risk factor for lung cancer is smoking (8). Other risk factors include exposure to certain substances (such as asbestos and radon), air pollution, tuberculosis, and for nonsmokers - environmental tobacco smoke (7). The risk factors for taking up tobacco use are varied, however since most people begin using tobacco during their teens, youth might be considered the major risk factor for tobacco use.
Quitnet is a free, online, interactive service designed to help smokers quit. The web site has two levels of service; one is free and the other requires a nominal fee or sponsorship which is provided by many state health departments. Quitnet offers a variety of support features as well as general information about tobacco use and the diseases it causes.
The single most important factor in preventing lung cancer, as well as a variety of other major diseases, is not using tobacco products, and more specifically, not smoking (7). Since tobacco products are highly addictive, never beginning to use tobacco products is the easiest way to avoid tobacco use. However, the benefits to quit smoking are so powerful that quitting can quickly become a necessity for many people. Today, there are many aids, such as nicotine patches and gum, telephone and online counseling, as well as other programs.
Here are some of the health benefits of quitting smoking:
Healthfinder is a resource provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is designed to help the public find credible health information on the web.
Smoking is most strongly associated with low birthweight among white women, followed by African American women and Hispanic women. A low-birthweight infant is one born weighing less than approximately 5.5 pounds. Compared to children of normal birth weight, these infants are more likely to experience health and developmental problems.
Environmental tobacco smoke contains almost 5,000 chemical compounds including arsenic, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide and radioactive elements. It has been classified as a Class A carcinogen, like asbestos, by the Environmental Protection Agency. Only 13 other substances are considered as dangerous to human health. Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of environmental tobacco smoke: there is double the risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in households with a smoking parent. The risk is associated with exposure both during pregnancy and after birth. Environmental tobacco smoke also increases the rate of illnesses in children such as: Bronchitis, Cystic Fibrosis, Coughing, Ear Infections, Pneumonia, Rhinitis, Sinusitis, and Sore Throats. Environmental tobacco smoke causes up to two million cases of chronic middle ear infection, 436,000 cases of bronchitis and 190,000 episodes of pneumonia in children under the age of 5. Nationally, environmental tobacco smoke causes more than 8,000 new asthma cases a year and aggravates the severity of asthma in 200,000 to 1,000,000 children a year. This leads to 13 million contacts with doctors, 200,000 hospitalizations and more than 100 deaths annually.
www.lungusa.org
The American Lung Association® (ALA) is the oldest voluntary health organization in the
United States, fighting lung disease in all its forms, with special emphasis on asthma, tobacco
control and environmental health. The ALA web site contains information on research findings,
programs by the ALA, air quality, diseases of the lungs, and much more.
Footnotes
1. http://www.nci.nih.gov/cancer_information/cancer_type/breast
2. ACS. Cancer Facts and Figures. 2002.
3. http://www.nabco.org/images/myth_fact_new.pdf
4. ACS. Cancer Facts and Figures. 2002.
5. http://www.nci.nih.gov/cancer_information/cancer_type/colorectal
6. ACS News Today. Eliminate Colorectal Cancer Act Moves To The Full Senate. July 18, 2002.
7. Healthy People 2010. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
8. http://www.lungusa.org/data/lc/lcp1.pdf
9. http://www.lungusa.org/data/smoke/SMK1.pdf
10. Behind the Smoke Screen: The Facts About Tobacco use in Colorado. Colorado Department
of Health and Environment. 1999
11. ACS. Cancer Facts and Figures. 2002.
12. Questions and Answers About Early Prostate Cancer. Cancer Facts. National Cancer Institute.
1999
13. Questions and Answers About the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial. Cancer Facts. National
Cancer Institute. 2000
14. Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT): Questions and Answers. Cancer
Facts. National Cancer Institute. 2001.
15. 5 A Day Program Evaluation Report. National Cancer Institute. 2000
16. http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/DietGd.pdf
This page reviewed and updated October 13, 2004.
Health information is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended for diagnosing or treating a health problem. If you have or suspect you may have a health problem, you should consult your health care provider.