How many out of 100 smokers will get lung cancer? The numbers may surprise you

Although the living standard has improved, the pressure on people is also increasing. In this case, more and more people smoke, and everyone hopes to release the pressure in this way. According to statistics, the number of smokers in the world has been increasing, and more than 8 million people lose their lives every year because of tobacco.

Tobacco releases more than 60 carcinogens when burned

However, there has always been controversy over whether smoking can kill people. In this regard, scientists have conducted research and published the results, and the numbers may surprise everyone.

So, out of 100 smokers, how many will eventually develop lung cancer?

Tobacco is "deadly", but some people still enjoy it

Risk factors associated with lung cancer

With the changes in human life and diet, cancer has become more and more common, and the frequency of occurrence among young people is also increasing. Among them, lung cancer is the number one malignant tumor in the world, and its incidence rate is quite high.

Data shows that according to GLOBO CAN2012 estimates, there are 1.82 million new cases of lung cancer worldwide, accounting for 12.9% of all tumors; and 1.59 million deaths, accounting for 19.4% of all tumors.

Lung cancer mortality ranks first in my country

As the incidence and mortality of lung cancer increase year by year, many experts have evaluated and screened the risk factors that may cause lung cancer, trying to understand the cause before "lung cancer" occurs, so that people can prevent it before it happens.

According to the research results, lung cancer has a certain relationship with smoking, air pollution, indoor environmental pollution, occupational exposure, nutritional and dietary factors, hormones, etc.

There are more causes of lung cancer than we thought

Taking air pollution as an example, everyone should have felt that in recent years, with the development of industry, air pollution has become more and more serious.

After synthesizing the research results, scientists believe that 8% of lung cancer in the world is caused by fine particulate matter. And as time goes by, many scholars believe that the threat of air pollution may be underestimated.

Long-term exposure to air pollution increases the risk of cancer

Next, let's look at occupational exposure. Many miners have a significantly higher chance of developing cancer because of the special environment they are in. For example, exposure to asbestos dust is very harmful to the human body. Long-term inhalation can cause asbestosis, lung cancer and other diseases, and data show that the exposure level is directly proportional to the risk of cancer.

Miners are directly exposed to harmful gases and dust

Of course, all of the above factors are not as great as the impact of smoking. However, many people still deny the etiological relationship between lung cancer and smoking, and in the last century, many tobacco companies kept consumers in the dark for vested interests, saying that smoking was not that harmful at all.

Data shows that in 2005, Harvard University scholars combined the results of the World Health Organization and previous risk factor studies and found that among the global population, about 70% of lung cancer deaths are attributed to smoking.

Schematic diagram of the relationship between smoking and lung cancer mortality

Even though the data is so obvious, there are still people who think that they are healthy enough and should be "lucky", and are unwilling to change their bad habit of smoking. Even after years of smoking, their addiction to smoking becomes more and more serious.

So, let's narrow the scope of the statistics and see how many out of 100 smokers will eventually develop lung cancer.

Smoking is the most common risk factor for lung cancer

How many out of 100 smokers will develop lung cancer?

Before the data is released, you might as well make a guess to see how big the gap is between the predicted results and the actual numbers.

This study was published in the British Journal of Cancer. According to the data, if 75 years old is taken as the statistical endpoint of smoking, the chance of lung cancer for people who have never smoked before the age of 75 is at most about 0.3%. However, even if you quit smoking at the age of 50, the probability of cancer is already higher than 5%.

Of course, since cigarettes are highly addictive, many smokers smoke for their entire lives. If they still maintain the habit of smoking at the age of 75, the chance of developing lung cancer will be higher than 15%. From this data, it means that at least 15 out of 100 smokers will develop lung cancer?

UK smokers statistics

The truth is not that simple, because the chance of lung cancer is related to the frequency of people smoking. Although some people smoke, they only smoke when they are depressed or have to smoke, but some people smoke one after another, sometimes they can finish a pack in a day. In this case, the chance of lung cancer will increase further.

Later, they integrated all the influencing factors and related data and determined that if these 100 smokers smoked for a long time and smoked more than 5 cigarettes a day, then in the end at least 25 of the 100 people would suffer from lung cancer.

"Smoking is harmful to health" is more than just a slogan

Seeing this, some people may find it a little surprising but still acceptable, after all, the one in four chance should not happen to them. However, in addition to causing lung cancer, smoking can also cause many other diseases. Even in terms of harm, smoking not only harms oneself, but also harms family members. Nowadays, many people are forced to breathe "second-hand smoke".

So, besides lung cancer, what other harms does smoking cause? And what harms does exposure to secondhand smoke cause?

Smoking is not a "one person's" thing

What other diseases can smoking cause?

First, let's start with malignant tumors. In addition to lung cancer, smoking can also cause laryngeal cancer, bladder cancer, pancreatic cancer, cervical cancer, esophageal cancer, liver cancer, etc., because tobacco smoke contains at least 69 carcinogens. These carcinogens can cause mutations in key genes in the human body, and as time accumulates, their impact will be more profound.

Diagram of cancer risk among smokers

In our opinion, smoking can only harm the lungs, how can it affect so many parts of the body? But in fact, the impact of smoking on other organs is also quite serious.

According to fifteen domestic statistical data from 1987 to 2002, smoking is an important factor in inducing liver cancer in the Chinese population, and the risk of smokers developing this disease is 1.41 times that of non-smokers.

Data show that among the Chinese population, smokers have a 1.32 times higher risk of developing liver cancer than non-smokers; those who smoke less than 20 cigarettes and more than 20 cigarettes a day have a 1.26 times and 1.94 times higher risk of developing liver cancer than non-smokers, respectively.

In my country, liver cancer is the second-ranked killer.

In addition to cancer, smoking can also cause various respiratory diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchial asthma, tuberculosis, etc. From these respiratory diseases, it can be seen that the harm of smoking is still very large, and some diseases have a great impact on the daily life of elderly smokers.

Finally, let's look at the health hazards of secondhand smoke exposure. Due to the smoke problem of cigarettes, if there is one person smoking in a family, then basically the whole family will smoke. Secondhand smoke also contains a large amount of carcinogens, which will increase the chances of illness for people nearby.

Secondhand smoke is usually more harmful than firsthand smoke

Taking malignant tumors as an example, scientists analyzed data from 20 case-control studies and found that people who are often exposed to secondhand smoke have a 1.64 times higher chance of developing cancer than those who are not exposed. This means that among 100 smokers, the families of the 75 who are physically fit and lucky enough have a 2 times higher chance of developing lung cancer than the average person.

And it's not just lung cancer. Scientists have compared a large amount of data and found that women's cervical cancer, breast cancer, etc. are also closely related to exposure to secondhand smoke.

Zeng et al.'s meta-analysis of 11 case-control studies (3230 cervical cancer patients and 2982 control subjects) showed similar results: women exposed to secondhand smoke had a 73% increased risk of cervical cancer compared with women not exposed to secondhand smoke.

Smoking harms others and yourself!

Therefore, for the health of yourself and your family, try to quit smoking.

Although quitting smoking is a very painful process for many people who have smoked for decades, even smoking less a day can reduce the chance of cancer. I believe that in the process of accumulating over time, it will still have a positive impact.

It is worth mentioning that many people realize that the harm of traditional cigarettes is indeed very great, so they turn to electronic cigarettes. Therefore, since the launch of electronic cigarettes, they have become popular all over the world, especially among young people.

Schematic diagram of global sales of e-cigarettes

However, the harm of e-cigarettes is actually very great, because e-cigarette liquid contains formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, etc. Among them, formaldehyde should be the most familiar to everyone. It is highly carcinogenic and will inhibit the movement of cilia in respiratory epithelial cells.

It can be seen that there are no completely harmless cigarettes in the world, whether they are traditional cigarettes or electronic cigarettes. If you want to reduce the risk of lung cancer and other cancers, you have to quit smoking.

E-cigarettes and cigarettes are both "weapons" that harm health

In addition, more and more young people are smoking nowadays, which is not a good phenomenon. They may be influenced by people around them or their parents. Therefore, many "old smokers" who are parents should be more vigilant!

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