Week 2: Smoking Risks

Blog Entry 2: Smoking Risks

So this week is about smoking. I will do a three part series on smoking, because it is the #1 preventable cause of death in the US. I’m just trying to give you information so that you can better choose your health. In the first two weeks, I’m going highlight the risks that one takes in lighting a cigarette. And week three will be practical steps that one could take to quit, if one so desires.

The purpose of this series is not to tell you to quit smoking. It’s to inform you of all the risks associated with smoking. I believe that we as a society know that ‘smoking is bad’ but we don’t know all the specifics. Hopefully by then end of this, you can read the facts, and as an educated individual make your rational decision based on those facts.

The health impact of tobacco use in 2008 is as follows:

1) #1 preventable cause of death in the US

a. smoking related deaths are the number one preventable cause of death. This means that if we don’t smoke we can prevent the smoking related diseases that cause death. It’s simple.

2) Responsible for 1 in 5 deaths (438,000 each year)

a. out of five people who die today, one of them died because of smoking.

3) 1/3-1/2 of smokers die of a smoking related disease

b. This means that let’s just say you have 3 friends who smoke. One of them will die of a smoking related disease.

So what are the “smoking related diseases”? I will list the ones that have strong evidence to establish causality.

“Smoking causes ________ cancer”

1) Lung

2) Laryngeal (voice box)

3) Oral cavity and pharyngeal (throat)

4) Esophageal

5) Pancreatic

6) Bladder and Kidney

7) Cervical

8) Endometrial

9) Stomach

10 Acute leukemia

some images of cancer: to make visible the invisible

Fig 1. Lung Cancer
Fig 2. Laryngeal Cancer
Fig 3. Oral cavity cancer
Fig 4. Esophageal Cancer

We all knew about lung cancer, but did we know about the rest? This is just cancer. Next week will be other diseases.

“Smoking injures almost all bodily organs, and tragically this injury often leads to incurable disease and death.” Surgeon General’s Report on Tobacco 2004

Most data from a lecture at HMS and the Surgeon General’s Report:

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/sgr_2004/chapters.htm

Images from:

http://images.medicinenet.com/images/Lung_8_01.gif

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/2/21/190px-Esophageal_adenoca.jpg

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/headneckcancer/images/oralpic.jpg

http://www.chicagovoicecenter.com/img34.gif