Is Smoking the main Cause of Cancer Disease?
Tobacco use is the main cause of smokers’ death, especially in the United States. But while cigarette smoking has decreased in the U.S. because of the smoking ban and tax increase, Tennessee still has one of the highest smoking rates in the country.
This continual use of tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco, explain the fact why Tennessee is in the middle of what scientists call the “Cancer Belt,” a group of Southern states with a disproportionately high rate of cancer.
Most people are conscious of the link between tobacco smoking and lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death for men and women. Although the population is more aware of the link between smoking and lung cancer, they may be amazed to find that tobacco use increases the risk for head and neck cancer, including cancers of the mouth, larynx (voice box), and throat, as well as cancers of the esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney, bladder, uterine cervical and white blood cells (acute myeloid leukemia).
Many of these cancers are just as fatal and just as difficult to treat as lung cancer. For example, only about 5 percent of pancreatic cancer patients are still alive five years after diagnosis.
The attempt by some tobacco companies to darken the very real health risks of their products is just one of the reasons supporting state regulation of tobacco. These companies actively encourage their smokeless tobacco products at many venues, comprising concerts and sporting events, which tend to attract younger public.
For example some tobacco companies are now encouraging the use of snus, small teabag-style pouches of moist tobacco that can be folded beneath the lips to give individuals a jolt of nicotine. The idea of this new product is to give smokers a dose of nicotine when they craving for cigarettes, and also using the evidence that oral tobacco use is a safer choice to smoke.
But for those who have seen or treated patients with head and neck cancers, it is clear that there is no safe tobacco alternative. Patients who develop cancers in the mouth, nose or throat often experience surgery or radiation treatments that can leave them defaced and lead to the loss of speech, and the inability to produce saliva or to eat normally.
Cancer scientists still don’t know what causes every form of cancer, and some patients develop cancer despite never smoking or using tobacco. But, it is clear that tobacco products use evidently increases the risk of developing many types of cancers. It is also clear that the use of smokeless tobacco, such as snus, snuff and chewing tobacco increase the risk of mouth cancer.
