Tobacco Use and the Big C

Tobacco Use and the Big C

So you are pooh-poohing the notion that using tobacco causes cancer, are you? Perhaps you should rethink your position. Did you know that the risk of dying from lung cancer is 22 times higher for men and 12 times higher for women who smoke than those who don’t? It’s true and the statistics don’t lie.

Lung cancer is not the only cancer that tobacco use causes, either. Cancer of the lip, cancer in the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, pancreas, larynx (voice box), lung, uterine cervix, urinary bladder, and kidney are all multiplied greatly when tobacco is used.

The chances of developing cancer are higher in all ethnic groups, all age groups and both sexes but the chances are higher for African American men. That doesn’t let all other ethnic groups off the hook, though. This only means that the chances are greater for African American men…. it doesn’t lower the risk for anybody else.

Don’t get smug if you don’t smoke cigarettes but do smoke pipes or cigars, or if you dip snuff or chew tobacco. Your chances of getting cancer are greatly increased just as those of cigarette smokers. Maybe to a somewhat lesser degree but there is still a greatly increased chance for getting cancer even when smokeless tobacco is used. There simply is no safe alternative tobacco use.

Tobacco smoke (whether it comes from a cigarette, a cigar or a pipe) contains more than two dozen different chemicals that are known to cause cancer. Smokeless tobacco puts these same 25 or so chemicals into direct contact with the mouth so guess what? Cancers of the lips and mouth are much, much more likely for smokeless tobacco users.

Science has the numbers on their side. The science is there that proves beyond any doubt (reasonable or otherwise) that tobacco use does cause cancer.