2008 National DNA Day Online Chatroom Transcript
This is just one question from an archive of the National DNA Day Moderated Chat held in April 2008. The NHGRI Director and many genomics experts from across NHGRI took questions from students, teachers and the general public on topics ranging from basic genomic research, to the genetic basis of disease, to ethical questions about genetic privacy.
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If you smoke how, long can it take to get lung cancer?
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Les Biesecker, M.D.:
Researching the clinical and molecular delineation of human malformation syndromes.
The time from onset of smoking to the onset of cancer is years to decades. But smoking causes many other shorter term problems. First is the addiction - some feel it is more addictive than narcotics. Then there is the heart disease and lung disease. There are few diseases more awful than end stage lung disease - worse in some ways than is cancer. Then there are the dental and gum effects - nasty.
Finally, as the old ad campaign said "Kissing a smoker is like licking out a used ashtray"
Yuck. |
| Souderton Area High School in PA (10th grade student) |
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