How can a biography of cancer be made? Why personify cancer,
a disease plaguing the lives of many people around the world, as something
similar to the people it’s killing? In his novel, The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee creates an intriguing
novel about cancer, focusing on the major treatments regarding certain cancers
and the discoveries of cancer’s many qualities. Towards the end of the novel,
Mukherjee discusses the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer that was
unexpected by many people (Mukherjee, 2010).
Lung cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer for
both men and women. However, before the mass production and popularization of
cigarettes, lung cancer was a very rare disease; doctors took special notice
when confronted with this disease (Proctor, 2012). When new technology was
created that allowed cigarettes to be produced on a large scale and advertising
glamorized smoking, more citizens were drawn to smoking and even the military
gave away free cigarettes to soldiers during World War I and World War II
(Mendes, 2014). Cigarette smoking causes many lung cancer cases. However, lung
cancer can also develop in people exposed to second-hand smoke, certain
environmental factors, and people who are genetically inclined to get lung
cancer. Even though tobacco usage and lung cancer rates increased in tandem
starting from 1930, few doctors expected a connection.
To strengthen the connection between tobacco usage and lung
cancer, Dr. Hammond and Dr. Horn, scientists working for the American Cancer
Society, spent 20 months completing a cohort study including men that smoke and
do not smoke. Hammond and Horn discovered that the death rate of lung cancer
was much higher in men who smoke than in men who do not smoke (Mendes, 2014).
Paired with the British Doctor’s study conducted at the same time, these were
the two major studies in establishing a link between smoking and lung cancer
death (Mukherjee, 2010).
Following these findings, the U.S. Surgeon General finally
reported the connection between the two in 1964. The report led to an era with
tobacco policy changes in the U.S. to curb the amount of smokers. The U.S.
smoking rate has dropped by more than half since these reforms. In men, lung cancer death
rates have declined about 34% from their peak in 1990. In women, lung cancer
death rate is now 9% less than it was at its peak in 2002 (Mendes, 2014).
However,
some people still refuse to stop smoking, due to not believing the studies, nicotine
addiction, or a mixture of both, like my father who has had multiple failed attempts
to quit. Cigarette makers make
about a penny in profit for every cigarette sold, which means that the value of
a life to a cigarette maker is about $10,000 (Procter, 2012). Aren’t we all
worth more than $10,000?
References:
"Lung
Cancer: History and Hope." Top Masters in Healthcare Administration.
Web. 9 Apr.
2016.
Mendes, Elizabeth. "The
Study That Helped Spur the U.S. Stop-Smoking Movement." Cancer.org. American Cancer
Society, 9 Jan. 2014. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.
Mukherjee,
Siddhartha. The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. New York: Scribner, 2010. Print.
Proctor, R. N. "The History
of the Discovery of the Cigarette-lung Cancer Link: Evidentiary Traditions, Corporate Denial, Global
Toll." Tobacco Control 21.2 (2012):
87-91. Web.
Your connection to a person being only worth 10,000 dollars at the end really stuck with me. Two of my grandparents recently passed away from lung cancer and one happened to be a life long smoker. Personally of course I view them both as worth much more than 10,000 dollars. These statistics are alarming and I am curious about whether smokers truly know their risk of getting lung cancer. Similar to our last class when asked what percentage of risk would be necessary to stop us from eating cured meats, what percentage of risk is needed for smokers to quit their habit?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mattina about the end of your post being very profound regarding a person being worth more than $10,000. I remember doing an English project in high school that looked at different kinds of advertising, and one group focused on tobacco products. Many commercials, ads, and movies make smoking look cool or hardcore, while in reality, it causes one of the most common forms of cancer. It's also very sad how many children and innocent people are exposed to the harmful effects of smoking even when they themselves don't choose to smoke. Secondhand smoke is a powerful problem, and I hope that one day no one will be affected by tobacco products unless they willingly choose to be.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting that we picked the same topic for our posts. Writing my own post and reading yours brought up a lot of questions. I wonder how much or for how long a person had to smoke in order for them to develop lung cancer? Like at what point in your time of smoking does your risk for lung cancer drastically increase. And not only does a person that smokes put themselves at risk, they put the others around them at risk with second hand smoke. Many people develop lung cancer without having smoked a cigarette themselves.
ReplyDeleteMy great-aunt, a lifelong smoker, recently passed away from lung cancer. She had previous undergone treatment for the disease, and her cancer went into remission. She continued smoking after this, however, and the cancer came back with a vengeance. Her generation had been so inundated with the idea that cigarettes weren't actually that harmful that even when confronted with the hard evidence that her habit was killing her, she couldn't bring herself to stop. If anyone is more interested in the controversy surrounding cigarette advertising, I recommend the film Thank You for Smoking, a satirical comedy that focuses on a spokesman for Big Tobacco.
ReplyDeleteIt is unfortunate that even with all the facts and projects aimed at stopping smoking in our country because of its terrible and fatal side effects, people continue to smoke. The number of smokers has most definitely gone down, but being in the 21st century, with people growing up alongside the efforts to stop smoking, it is still a thing. This isn't the 19th or 20th century, smoking is no longer idolized. Or thought of as something celebrities do, so you should do it too. The nasty, hard facts are here, in our face. And they should have caused people to realize that they are most definitely worth more than $10,000. It is unfortunate that those smokers haven't.
ReplyDeleteCertainly every life is worth more than 10,000 ( a year's tuition at our university) I do think all people know the harm cigarettes cause and are only lying to themselves if they "do not believe." Cigarettes are felt to prevent weight gain and help with stress. These are beliefs used to continue what is a bad habit. It is hard to quit a habit with a addictive agent, but it is certainly worth the effort and hard work. I agree Thank You for Smoking is a very funny movie aiming sarcasm at Lobbyists and advertising.
ReplyDelete