Cigarettes Are Still Killing Many Americans

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Over 50 years ago, the US Surgeon General released the first-ever report on smoking, which officially declared that it caused both chronic bronchitis and lung cancer.
Despite the ramifications of that report and the significant drops in smoking rates, cigarettes still cause about 30 percent of all cancer-related deaths in the US, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society.
A similar report from 30 years ago found that 30 percent of all American cancer deaths were linked to smoking, and the new American Cancer Society study is the first attempt to update that statistic. While the new report, published in the Annals of Epidemiology, might infer that progress hasn’t been made – new smoking-related cancers have been added to the conversation.
In the new study, researchers examined the most current information on smoking rates from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and information on the hazards of smoking taken from epidemiologic research studies, to figure out what is called the population attributable fraction (PAF), or the percentage of cancer deaths in the population brought on by smoking.
Based on their data, the study team conservatively estimated that the PAF for active cigarette smokers was 29 percent, which included only deaths from the 12 cancers formally established as smoking-related. When estimated more liberally, meaning the inclusion of all cancers, the PAF was 32 percent. The researchers pointed out that their estimates do not contain cancer deaths due to second-hand smoke or other kinds of tobacco use such as cigars or smokeless tobacco.
“Our results indicate that cigarette smoking causes about three in 10 cancer deaths in the contemporary United States,” the study team wrote. “Reducing smoking prevalence as rapidly as possible should be a top priority for US public health efforts to prevent future cancer deaths.”
Some people have claimed that electronic cigarettes are a less hazardous option compared to conventional cigarettes, but a new study from a team of Japanese researchers has revealed high amounts of carcinogens in at least one brand of e-cigarettes.
“In one brand of e-cigarette the team found more than 10 times the level of carcinogens contained in one regular cigarette,” study researcher Naoki Kunugita, who led a team from the National Institute of Public Health, told the AFP news agency at the time.
Additionally, the Japanese team found both formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, two major carcinogens, in the vapor of several e-cigarette liquids.
While he wouldn’t reveal the name of the highly-toxic brand identified in the study, Kunugita said the study’s take away is that e-cigarettes aren’t the harmless products that the manufacturers of these products would have us believe.
“We need to be aware that some makers are selling such products for dual use (with tobacco) or as a gateway for young people” to start smoking, Kunugita said.
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