reply to post by Phage
Phage
In answer to your question, please read the definition of smoker
www.hc-sc.gc.ca...
Examine especially the definition of the word "never-smoker". That is someone who has never smoked more than 100 cigarettes during their whole
life. That equals 4 packs of cigarettes.
So if you are 15 and you spend a summer experimenting with smoking with your friends, then decide its not for you.....if you get lung cancer 50 years
later at the age of 65.....you will be asked if you ever smoked. So being an honest person, you mention that you tried it but didn't like it. You
will be asked to estimate if you smoked mabye 25 cigarettes or was it 50 or could it have been 100. If you admit that "yeah, might have been 100"
....guess what - you have a smoking related lung cancer!
It doesn't matter what type of lung cancer you have. You ARE a smoker and your lung cancer is counted as smoking related.
(Just for laughs, I checked with my grandson who is 16. He experimented with smoking when he was 14 but doesn't smoke now. I asked him to estimate
how many cigarettes he smoked. At first he said about 50 or 60 but with just a little prodding, I got him up to 150. Not very hard either). So - if
my grandson ends up with lung cancer 50 years from now...its because he is a smoker)
Now you will also need to understand that lung cancer is a disease of age - it starts at about 60 years of age and peaks in the early 70s and declines
in the 80s decade. Yes - lung cancer can occur at a younger age but really its a statistical anomaly. This fact sheet from the CDC will confirm what
I have just stated.
So if you look at the fact that people get lung cancer at that age and the fact that most smokers start smoking in their teens - you have to compare
the prevalence of smoking in the population 40 - 65 years ago. This was the time period when smoking was VERY prevalent. As a matter of fact, most
men smoked - about 71 percent of them. Now woman didn't smoke as much, at least publicaly because it was frowned upon. And no woman would admit to
smoking but in fact, many smoked privately...generally woman smokers probably comprised at least 50 % of the female population.
And of course, how many people can truthfully remember whether they smoked 50 or 75 or 100 cigarettes 50 or 60 years ago?
So if you are any good at math, we can say that "smokers" by the medical definition of that term comprised about 60 % of the population.
So - if you are counting, what we have to date is that about 80 % of lung cancer occur in about 60 % of the population!
And then the other statistical trick that is used is to count metastsized cancer as lung cancer. You see, cancer can move to the lungs from other
sites, like breast cancer. But medically speaking, lung cancer is a separate disease. If you have breast cancer and it moves to the lung - the
cancer in the lung is still classed as breast cancer - NOT lung cancer.
Unless, of course you are a smoke - then suddenly, you lump metastisized cancer as true lung cancer (and doesn't that just expand the incidence of
lung cancer in smokers?
Now I am going to refer you to a fact sheet on lung cancer for non-smokers.
lungcancer.about.com...
I am also going to quote this fact sheet
Overall, 10-15% of lung cancers occur in non-smokers. (Another 50% occur in former smokers.)
if you are counting - that means that 60 to 65 % of lung cancers occur in people who DON'T smoke (many of who quit decades ago - male smoking peaked
in the 1960s, female smoking peaked in the 1970s).
Tired of Control Freaks
I tried Electronic cigarette...quit for 9 months and now switched to Ultra
Lights from Lights 
