Lung Cancer Causes And Risk Factors

Lung Cancer Smoking Statistics

As noted in our introductory article on lung cancer, there was a sharp upswing in the number of lung cancer diagnoses as the 20th century progressed. The rise in lung cancer statistics coincided with the number of cigarette smokers. In the early 1960's, medical researchers saw evidence that smoking cigarettes was one of the major lung cancer causes and risk factors.

But smoking is just one of several possible lung cancer causes and risk factors. The most common are described briefly below.

Lung cancer smoking statistics There are more than four thousand chemical compounds in tobacco smoke, and several of them have been identified as lung cancer causes. The two primary cancer-causing compounds are chemicals known as nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

It's estimated that 9 out of 10 cases of lung cancer are caused by smoking cigarettes. The longer you have been smoking cigarettes during your lifetime, the higher your risk of contracting lung cancer.

Statistics on lung cancer and smoking reveal that someone who is smoking two or more packs of cigarettes a day stands a 15 percent chance of dying from lung cancer.

Other tobacco-related lung cancer causes and risk factors include pipe smoking and cigar smoking, although these are considered less risky than cigarettes. But pipe and cigar smokers are still five times more likely than a non-smoker to get lung cancer.

Lung cancer risk diminishes when you stop smoking cigarettes because the lungs are able to replace damaged cells with healthy ones. Someone who has not smoked for fifteen years and is lung cancer free has approximately the same chance of contracting lung cancer as a nonsmoker.

Passive Smoke One of the lesser known lung cancer causes and risk factors is something called "passive smoke." This means even if you're not smoking cigarettes yourself, but you spend a lot of time in places where other people do, your risk of getting lung cancer increases.

Research has shown that a nonsmoker who lives with a smoker has a 24 percent higher chance of getting lung cancer than someone who is not exposed to passive smoke.

In the United States, passive smoke causes about three thousand deaths a year from lung cancer.

Radon Gas This is one of the lung cancer risk factors that is just beginning to get more attention in news reports. Though many people have never heard of it, it is believed to cause approximately twenty thousand lung cancer deaths a year in the United States. Thus, it ranks second behind smoking as a lung cancer cause.

Radon gas is a natural, chemically inert gas that is created when uranium decays. It is invisible and odorless. It seeps up from the earth through foundations, pipes, drains and so on. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that as many as one of every 15 homes contains dangerous levels of radon gas.

Long Term Exposure to Asbestos Like smoking cigarettes, prolonged exposure to asbestos fibers is one of the major lung cancer causes. Nonsmokers who have worked around asbestos are five times more likely to get lung cancer than those who have not been exposed. Smokers who have worked around asbestos are even more at risk (50 to 90 percent).

Asbestos was often used for insulation, but today it is either banned or severely limited in building and construction. Asbestos fibers can accumulate in the lungs and remain there for years.

Asbestos not only causes lung cancer, but it can also cause mesothelioma, which is cancer of the lining of the lungs (known as pleura) as well as the lining of the abdominal cavity (peritoneum).

Family History Not all smokers develop lung cancer, and not everyone who gets lung cancer is a smoker. It appears that some people are nonsmokers may have a genetic predisposition to the disease which has nothing to do with other risk factors.

Lung Diseases If you already have a lung disease, you may be more at risk to develop lung cancer. For instance people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (better known as COPD) appear to have a much higher chance of getting lung cancer than nonsmokers with healthy lung function.

Air Pollution Air pollution from vehicles and factories should also be listed among lung cancer causes and risk factors. The percentages are small when compared to smoking cigarettes, but are still significant. Living near a plant that produces polluted air raises your lung cancer risk to approximately the same level as a nonsmoker living with a smoker.

Recurrence Statistically, someone who has already had lung cancer stands a higher risk of getting it again.

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