Lung Cancer Risk Factor
How Will I Know?
Does This Risk Factor
Cigarette smoking
If you smoke cigarettes, you are at increased risk for lung cancer. Cigarette smoking causes 87 percent of lung cancer deaths.
Your risk increases with total lifetime exposure to cigarette
smoke. This includes:
The number of cigarettes you smoke each day
The intensity of your smoking (the size and frequency
of puffs)
The age at which you began to smoke
The number of years you have smoked
Your exposure to secondhand smoke.
"Light" cigarettes do not reduce the health risks of smoking.
Cigar smoking
If you smoke cigars, you are at increased risk for cancer of the lip, tongue, mouth, throat,
larynx, lung , and esophagus.
If you smoke cigars daily, particularly if you inhale, you are at increased risk
for developing heart and lung disease. Lung disease itself is a risk factor for
lung cancer.
Like cigarette smoking, your risk from cigar smoking increases
with increased exposure.
Environmental tobacco smoke
Environmental tobacco smoke, commonly known as secondhand
smoke, is a
risk factor for lung cancer. It is
a combination
of smoke emitted from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar, or pipe, and smoke
exhaled by the smoker.
If you are a nonsmoker who lives with smokers in a home
where smoking is allowed, you are at the greatest risk
for suffering the negative health effects of secondhand smoke
exposure (lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer, respiratory
tract infections, and heart disease).
If you are a nonsmoker, separating yourself from smokers
may reduce, but will not eliminate,
your exposure to secondhand smoke.
Radon
Radon, an odorless, colorless, radioactive gas, is present
in nearly all air. While everyone breathes in low levels
of radon in every day, people who breathe in high levels
of radon are at an increased risk for developing lung cancer.
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the
United States and is associated with 15,000 to 22,000 lung
cancer deaths each year.
Radon can enter your home through cracks in floors, walls,
or foundations, and collect indoors. It also can also be released
from building materials, or from water obtained from wells
that contain radon. Radon levels can be higher in homes that
are well insulated, tightly sealed, and/or built on uranium-rich
soil. Because of their closeness to the ground, basement and
first floors typically have the highest radon levels. Testing
is the only way to know if your home has elevated radon levels.
Asbestos
If you have had or currently have substantial exposure
to asbestos, you are at increased risk for lung cancer.
Nearly everyone is exposed to asbestos at some time during
his or her life. However, most people do not become ill from
their exposure. People who become ill from asbestos are usually
those who are exposed to it on a regular basis, most often
in a job where they work directly with the material or through
substantial environmental contact.
You may have been exposed to asbestos fibers if you worked
in:
Shipbuilding trades
Asbestos mining and milling
Manufacturing of asbestos textiles and other asbestos
products
Insulation work in the construction and building trades
Brake repair.
Currently, asbestos is used most frequently in gaskets and
in roofing and friction products. Government regulations
and improved work practices have made today’s workers
(those without previous exposure) likely to face smaller
risks than those who were exposed in the past.
If you are a smoker who is also exposed to asbestos, you have
a greatly increased risk of developing lung cancer.
Lung diseases
If you have had certain lung diseases, such as tuberculosis
(TB), you are at increased risk for developing lung cancer.
Lung cancer tends to develop in areas of the lung that are
scarred from TB.
Personal history
If you have had lung cancer once, you are more likely to develop a
second lung cancer compared with a person who has never had lung cancer.
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