Dangers Of Smoking:Cancer

Cancer is one of the most severe consequences of smoking. Smoking is the cause of nearly thirty percent of all cancer related deaths. Smoking has been linked to cancers of the lungs, mouth or oral cancers, larynx, esophagus, and even the bladder.

Lung cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat in women and men, which is sad because most of the lung cancer that people develop is preventable. This type of cancer is the top killer of men and the second cause of cancer death in women, among the various types of cancer. A mere twelve to fifteen percent of treatments given for lung cancer are actually curing patients. The other 85 percent will face the ultimate consequence for their smoking habits. Cancer of the lung is preventable in over ninety percent of the patients diagnosed with the disease. Even with all the other reasons put aside, this
should be a very important reason to quit now while you still have a chance to prevent more damage to your lungs. Although there is still the risk of getting lung cancer even after you stop smoking, the risk of getting cancer of the lung does diminish as time passes. The most commonly seen symptoms of lung cancer include shortness of breath, coughing, sometimes with blood, and a dramatic weight loss. By the time you get these symptoms it could be too late, so make efforts to quit smoking now and for good.
Another terrible form of cancer that can be caused by smoking is cancer of the mouth, or oral cancer. Oral cancer can include cancer of the mouth, lips, nasal cavity, salivary gland, tonsillar tissue, and even the cheek. In just the United States this year, it is estimated that thirty four thousand people will be diagnosed with some type of oral cancer, and in over half of these cases the cancer will have developed into the last stages of the disease. Chewing the tobacco is a very high risk factor for getting oral cancer because the tobacco is in direct contact with the mucous membrane. In India, it is quite common to chew types of tobacco so the oral cancers make up nearly forty percent of all the types of cancer in the country. This is high when compared with the United Kingdom, which is around four percent.

Note that this doesn’t mean that the only way to get oral cancer is from chewing tobacco. Smoking cigarettes is responsible for nearly seventy five percent of cases involving some type of oral cancer, because smoking cigarettes causes irritation of the tissues through the smoke, and also the high heat. This irritation of the tissues leads to the ruining of the cells, and eventually leads to oral cancers. Oral cancers are, as with lung cancers, largely preventable and the best way to prevent any further damage to the mouth is to quit now and forever.

However, cancer is only responsible for half of the deaths caused from smoking. It has been proven that heart disease, emphysema, as well as many other terrible diseases are caused or worsened by smoking cigarettes on a regular basis.