The Study of Lung Cancer - Essay Example

As the Mayans spread across Central and South America, they took tobacco with them and introduced it to the local cultures. The first proof of humans smoking tobacco comes from some pottery from 800 A.D. that shows a Mayan smoking a cigarette made from tobacco leaves (Stop Smoking ABC, n.d.). Moving forward 700 years, Rodrigo de Jerez, a companion of the explorer Christopher Columbus, was the first recorded European to take up smoking (Chua, 2011). The surprising thing was that he was jailed because he was found to be smoking in public.

This is in stark contrast to today, where tobacco companies have used their corporate might to enable smoking to be legalized. The primary purpose for this has been solely for profit, yet lung cancer is one of the principal killers of humans, with the risk of getting lung cancer increasing by at least ten times if someone smokes cigarettes (Macnair, 2011). This essay will look at two issues: people who die from lung cancer from smoking cigarettes and those who die from lung cancer after being around smoke.

According to the World Health Organization, approximately one billion people will die from smoking in the 21st century (Chua, 2011). This means that the world’s population will experience slower growth than it otherwise would have. The fact that so many people are predicted to die from lung cancer caused by smoking is inexcusable, considering that we live in a modern world. It is reasonable to expect that previous generations were heavy smokers because they did not know any better.

Scientists did not understand that smoking caused lung cancer and that lung cancer would kill millions of people. It has been proven that smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, but smoking also affects preexisting conditions in many smokers. Heart disease is almost something that is directly affected by excessive smoking. The sad thing about people who died from lung cancer is that the plight was utterly avoidable. If they had been taught about the perils of smoking, many of them might never have taken smoking up.

In the United States, around 500,000 people die each year from smoking-related illnesses, with many of those succumbing to lung cancer (Chua, 2011). This has a significant effect on the American people as a whole, not to mention the economy. Who has to foot the bill for many of these people for all the treatment they require? The answer is the taxpayer, of course. Studies have proven that smokers are ten times more likely to die early than those who don’t smoke (Chua, 2011). Why should the burden fall to those who have made the sensible decision not to smoke, yet they have to suffer the consequences of those who do choose to smoke?

Besides this, a person who dies from lung cancer leaves behind a family that may struggle financially due to losing their loved one. This is not fair that others have to feel the pain of a decision that does not consider others. This leads to the second issue of how smoking causes lung cancer—secondhand or passive smoking. Many people died from lung cancer in the past, even though they had never smoked a cigarette (Chua, 2011). Smoking was common in all public places, such as workplaces, hospitals, and churches.

However, in the last few years, many Western nations have banned smoking in public because of how it affects innocent people who are nearby. This is a marked improvement because now those who choose not to smoke do not have to suffer the consequences of smoking, namely lung cancer. The most apparent people at risk of secondhand smoke are the spouses of heavy or regular smokers. Because smokers are still allowed to smoke inside their homes, those living with them are at risk of developing lung cancer. Of course, the chances of getting lung cancer through secondhand smoke are not very high compared to regular smokers, yet they are much more likely to develop lung cancer than those who do not smoke and do not mix with smokers.