Sunday, April 26, 2009

What proof is there that smoking leads to lung cancer?


Cigarettes contain many harmful chemicals as well as the addictive drug nicotine. There has been a lot of research done by scientists to investigate the short and long term effects these chemicals can have on the body and particularly the lungs. Your research needs to show if there IS a link to these chemicals and lung cancer or NOT.

12 comments:

  1. Smoking Leads To Lung Cancer – Part A

    Cancer

    To heal your body, cells divide to make more cells. Cancer is when the cells divide uncontrollably and spread into the normal tissue, in some cases called a tumour, although not all tumours are cancerous. A benign tumour doesn’t invade the other tissues or spread throughout the body. Tumours which do spread are called cancer. The cancer cells can get into the blood vessels and travel all around the body forming secondary cancers.

    Lung Cancer

    Lung cancer is where the cancer cells get into the lining of the bronchi or in the lung tissue. There are two types of lung cancer - small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small-cell (NSCLC). About 80% of lung cancer is non-small-cell. There are three types of NSCSLC but they are all treated in the same way. SCLC spreads really quickly meaning it is usually unable to be treated by surgery.

    Causes

    There are many causes of lung cancer such as

    • Environmental Causes (High levels of radon gas)
    • Chemicals (Exposure to chemicals – asbestos increases risk)
    • Diet (Low fruit and vegetables)

    And …

    • Smoking.

    Smoking

    90% of lung cancers are caused by smoking. If you give up smoking, the risk of you getting lung cancer will reduce every year that you haven’t smoked. It would take 15 years of no-smoking to return to a normal risk of lung cancer. Passive smoking has proven to be more dangerous then directly smoking. It is another cause for non-smokers developing lung cancer.

    Smoking Ban

    Over the last few years, the State Governments have passed legislation to ban smoking in many public places such as restaurants, children’s playgrounds and enclosed work places. Sponsored by the Australian government ads on TV now promote people to quit smoking.

    http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/lung_cancer.html
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_cancer#Causes
    http://www.quitnow.info.au/

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  3. Part A

    There are over 4000 chemicals in a single cigarette. This includes things like nail polish remover, petrol, paint and many other horrible chemicals. In world war one many governments supplied soldiers with tobacco and cigarettes so their morale was to be boosted. Smoking became extremely popular because of this in the early 1900’s. Twenty to thirty years on, lung cancer also happened to became more common than in any time in history. Interestingly enough Lung cancer from smoking cigarettes takes from twenty to thirty years to become a cancer cell. When you smoke cigarettes it blackens the lung due to different chemicals in the cigarette. The chemicals known as benzo and pyrene are two of the chemicals that link lung cancer and smoking cigarettes together. These chemicals are in the cigarette smoke from tars in the tobacco. The clear evidence that connects lung cancer and cigarette smoking is two chemicals found in a cluster in cigarettes. These chemicals are p53 produced by BPDE. This identical cluster has been found as part of three ‘’hotspots’’ in lung cancer. Hot spots are the initial spots on the lung creating lung cancer. From this information I think it is clear that the addictive chemicals within cigarettes and their long term use have a high risk of causing lung cancer.

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  4. Part A

    At least 69 cancer causing chemicals have been found in cigarettes. These include arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde, cadmium and polonium-210.

    One of the most dangerous chemicals is arsenic. This may not only cause cancer but can damage the heart and its blood vessels. As well as direct effects, it can increase the effect of other chemicals by interfering with our body's ability to repair our DNA.

    It has been confirmed that benzene can cause cancer, mainly leukaemia. Cadmium is a metal commonly used to make batteries. Cadmium is a known cause of cancer and can damage the kidneys and linings of the arteries. Like arsenic, it may prevent our cells repairing our DNA.

    Formaldehyde is also a known cause of cancer, usually causing disease in our lungs and airways. Even the small amounts of Formaldehyde in second hand smoking are believed to increase our lifetime risk of cancer.

    Polonium-210 strongly releases an extremely damaging type of radiation called alpha-radiation. Alpha-radiation delivers radiation directly to the airways and the surrounding cells.

    I strongly believe that there is a connection between the chemicals in cigarettes and lung cancer.

    http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/smokeispoison/poisonoussmoke/cancercausingchemicals/#Arsenic

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  5. Part B
    I strongly agree with everyone saying that smoking can lead to lung cancer. Research has shown that tobacco and cigarette smoking, as well as environmental or passive smoking, is the major cause of lung cancer (about 90% of all lung cancer cases in Australia are caused by smoking).The harmful and toxic chemicals that are released into the lungs when inhaling the smoke of a cigarette can cause cells in the lung tissue to grow abnormally. These abnormal cells have the ability to grow and reproduce faster than the normal-functioning ones, and would soon combine to form a big cluster of abnormal cells. This cluster of abnormally-functioning cells would be known as a lung tumor. According to the people of the myDr (the Australian Healthcare Group), “The younger a person is when they first commence smoking, the higher the risk of developing lung cancer.” (2002).

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  6. Part B
    I agree with James in his blog made at May 21, 2009 4:47 AM
    I would just like to build on the chemicals in cigarettes which cause cancer.
    As James said, arsenic, benzene,formaldehyde, cadmium and polonium-210 all are carcinogens (something which causes cancer) but there are also many other chemicals which are major causes of lung cancer as well. The main chemicals he had left out include:

    Chromium 6- Helps other chemicals to harm and destroy human DNA. It is very toxic and is proven to produce lung cancer

    Nitrosameines- These chemicals directly attack and damage DNA cells. It is known to be one the most toxic chemicals in cigarettes

    Acrolein- Acrolein stops the repairs of DNA that have been formerly damaged possibly by other tobacco chemicals . Smoke from tobacco products contains large amounts of acrolein

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  7. Part A
    In 1948, scientists at Washington University discovered that when a man died of lung cancer and they did autopsy on him, that his lungs were blackened. 96% of people who die of lung disease are smokers. Later that year, a British scientist, Richard Doll, found a more convincing approach on how smoking linked to lung cancer. He surveyed a number of physicians and their smoking habits, and when he waited to see which ones developed lung cancer it was surprisingly the smokers. Cancer is the direct damage to genes which restrain cell division. When the gene is mutated, cells can multiply and divide as they wish. The chemicals found in cigarette smoke have been found to contain powerful mutagens. That is, they cause control cells to deform. This has been established as fact through laboratory experiments on animals over a period of thirty years. http://txtwriter.com/Onscience/Articles/smokingcancer2.html

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  8. .-PART B-.

    -I do agree with everyone that smoking DOES lead to lung cancer.

    -James (May 21, 4.47AM) said that
    “It has been confirmed that benzene can cause cancer, mainly leukaemia.”

    -I think this should have been explained in more detail as to why benzene causes cancer.

    -Benzene is a clear, colourless, aromatic liquid which is highly flammable. It is popular in the US as a building block for plastics and rubber.

    -The Department of Health and Human services proved that benzene was officially a human carcinogen(something that’s causes cancer). It was proved to have caused numerous cases of leukaemia. Direct contact with benzene can cause immune system depression and anemia.

    -And of course, someone who is smoking, is being directly exposed to benzene!

    -EWW!

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  9. Part b
    BO suggests that benzene in cigaret smoke "can cause immune system depression" and that is why it leads to lung cancer. This is probably not correct. Wang has shown that cigarette smoke contains acrolein and that acrolein binds to the p53 gene causing mutations in the DNA of the gene. The sites of mutation are the same as those found in the p53 gene of lung cancer cells in smokers. This proves that the true cause of the cancer is genetic alterations in the growth regulating gene p53 and that these are caused by acrolein in cigarette smoke.
    Ref ( Wang HT et al. Mutagenicity and sezuence specificity of acrolein -DNA adducts. Chem Res Toxicol 2009. Jan 15 (Epub) ) (accesed pubmed 28th May 2009)

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  10. I agree with all the things that people have written above but I would like to add on to what J@mes has said. That is that he is correct with all that he has said but he has left out some important information and that is that men are more likely to die from lung cancer caused by cigarettes ten women. As study has shown 90% of men who smoke die from lung cancer and 80% of women who smoke die from lung cancer. And as this statistics show lung cancer is the most likely form of cancer cause by smoking and the most deadly. Also men who smoke are 23 time more likely to develop lung cancer then men who don’t smoke and women 13 times more then nonsmoking women. http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/tobaccostatistics/a/cancerstats.htm

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