Health

Smoking : Still the Biggest Killer, by Far

by Paul Conneally | December 27, 2008 at 03:57 pm

267 views | 5 Recommendations | 5 comments

Lung cancer is still the leading cause of death by cancer with 9 out of 10 cases directly due to one factor - smoking.

As New Year approaches health promotion agencies across the world have one message - if you smoke make your New Year's resolution be to stop smoking.

It's the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, killing more people each year than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined.

It's typically discovered too late to be treated successfully, with about 85 percent of victims dead within five years of diagnosis.

And nine out of 10 cases of the disease are tied to a single behavior -- smoking.

Lung cancer killed 160,390 people in 2007, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance. That's an average of 439 people a day.

And tobacco caused 90 percent of those deaths, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

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Uwe Paschen

at 04:50 on December 28th, 2008

Lung cancer is a leading cause in deed, however not due to smoking any longer but rather due to pollution as it was published in a study four month ago on the UN web page and also in a post here on NP.

Paul Conneally

at 05:10 on December 28th, 2008

The latest figures for deaths due to lung cancer in the USA show 90% due to smoking - smoking unfortunatly is still running at over 20% of population in all Western countries minimum.

Be good to see that UN info - got a link?

Uwe Paschen

at 05:15 on December 28th, 2008

I am still looking and will try to find the Post as well. Now the problem is with some of those numbers that if some one worked with Asbestos and smoked the cause of death will be put down as smoking not Asbestos as it should be. Same for other ill-mends. Part of it is number fixing to what ever is convenient....