Smoking rates are falling in the U.S! - says Gallup

The Gallup Organization, which studies human nature and behaviors around the globe, has concluded from its ‘Gallup Smoking Poll’ that smoking rate in the Unites States is at its lowest level, since the 1950’s, and it is great news for a country, which has the highest rate of cancer in the world.

This news story throws more light on this poll (which was conducted across the globe) and its findings.

Quitting is hard, but …..?

There could be many reasons for not quitting smoking, but there are many more reasons for why we should and this short clip talks about them.

Howto-quitsmoking.com - Celebrity bloopers here

Secondhand smoke at workplace doubles the risk of cancer

eitb24: Writing in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers said that for nonsmokers who were highly exposed to secondhand smoke at work, there was approximately a 100 percent increase in lung cancer risk.

High levels of secondhand smoke on the job can double nonsmokers' risk of developing lung cancer, and those who inhale it at work long-term face a 50 percent higher risk, researchers said on Wednesday. Scientists led by epidemiologist Leslie Stayner of the University of Illinois at Chicago combined the results of 22 studies on secondhand smoke conducted in the United States, Canada, Europe, India, Japan and China.

Writing in the American Journal of Public Health, they said that for nonsmokers who were highly exposed to secondhand smoke at work, there was approximately a 100 percent increase in lung cancer risk.

The researchers adopted the previous studies' definitions of high exposure, based on factors like the numbers of smokers present in the workplace and actual amounts of smoke exposure. Lung cancer risk for nonsmokers exposed for 30 years to secondhand smoke on the job jumped by 50 percent. Nonsmokers exposed to any secondhand smoke in the workplace experienced a 24 percent increased risk that rose based on level and duration of exposure, they said.

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Why do non-smokers develop lung cancer?

San Francisco Chronicle – Every year roughly 20,000 people who have never touched a cigarette are diagnosed with lung cancer -- and women are particularly at risk, for reasons no one understands.

Recent research has suggested that women who don't smoke are two to three times more likely than nonsmoking men to develop lung cancer.

"People talk about secondhand smoke, but there are other environmental pollutants," said Dr. Heather Wakelee, an assistant professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. "We just don't understand it."
Research also suggests that women may be more vulnerable than men to the carcinogenic effects of smoking -- in some studies, women who smoked have been shown to be roughly twice as likely to develop lung cancer as men who smoked.

Wakelee, who is set to publish a new study on nonsmoking women and lung cancer in the next few months, said the research is too new to come up with a reason for why nonsmokers get cancer, and why women are especially at risk. Almost all studies have looked at patient records -- not actual patients -- which don't include all of the environmental factors, such as exposure to airborne pollutants, that could lead to lung cancer.

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