14 DAY TRIAL // The fact that smoking causes all sorts of health trouble and can even kill has long been proven by the medical community. What's interesting is that, according to a new report made public by JAMA Internal Medicine, it's not just the lungs that are harmed by this habit.
On the contrary, researchers say that, according to data at hand, smoking can cause over a dozen different types of cancer. Consequently, it need be blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths yearly.
Specialist Rebecca L. Siegel of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta says that, of the 345,962 deaths among adults age 35 and older documented in the US in 2011, 167,805 (48.5%) were caused by forms of cancer that folks developed after lighting up one too many times.
Some cancer types are more prevalent
In their report, researcher Rebecca L. Siegel and colleagues explain that, when it comes to the damage smoking causes the body, not all organs and systems are equally vulnerable.
As it turns out, people who smoke are most at risk of cancers of the lungs, bronchus and trachea. Of the 167,805 smoking-attributable cancer deaths reported in the US in 2011, such forms of the disease accounted for 82%.
Cancers of the larynx, the oral cavity, the esophagus and the urinary bladder follow, the specialists further detail. All in all, smoking can cause at least 12 different types of cancer.
“Continued progress in reducing cancer mortality, as well as deaths from many other serious diseases, will require more comprehensive tobacco control, including targeted cessation support,” the researchers warn in their study.
Mind you, there is some good news
It might be that smoking-attributable cancers still kill thousands of hundreds of people yearly, but it looks like there is also a teeny tiny silver lining.
Thus, the American Cancer Society specialist and her colleagues argue that, in recent years, folks in the US have made considerable progress when it comes to giving up smoking.
Specifically, recent estimates say that, between the years 2000 and 2012, smoking prevalence in the country dropped from 23.2% to 18.1%. It's not much, but it's still better than nothing.