HEALTH REPORT - July 31, 2002: Tobacco and Cancer
By Nancy Steinbach
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
A recent report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer says the
dangers of tobacco smoke are greater than had been thought.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer is part of the World Health
Organization. It is based in Lyon, France. The agency researches the causes of
cancer. It identifies the number of people who develop cancer around the world.
And it develops programs aimed at finding ways to prevent the disease. The new
report is part of a series written by independent international experts on the dangers
of different chemicals.
A committee of twenty-nine experts from twelve countries developed the report. These scientists examined more
than fifty medical studies concerning tobacco smoking. The group says that tobacco use is the largest cause of
preventable cancers around the world. Experts say that more than one-thousand-million people around the world
smoke tobacco.
The report says that one-half of all people who smoke cigarettes will die from diseases caused by smoking
tobacco. These include cancers of the lung, stomach, liver, kidney and blood. The report also says tobacco use
causes an even greater number of deaths from lung diseases, heart disease and stroke.
The report says other kinds of tobacco use also increase the chances of developing cancers of the lung, head and
neck. These include smoking cigars, pipes and bidis -- tobacco rolled in a leaf that is popular in South Asia.
The report also says that people who smoke endanger the health of non-smokers who breathe in tobacco smoke.
These non-smokers are breathing in a smaller amount of cancer-causing chemicals than active smokers get. But it
is still enough to cause deadly lung cancer.
However, the scientists found no increased risk of cancer among children who breathe in this second-hand
smoke. But they say they do not know the long-term effect of tobacco smoke on children as they grow older. The
scientists also say their research found that smoking tobacco does not cause some kinds of cancer. There is clear
evidence that smoking has little or no effect on developing breast cancer or prostate cancer.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.
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