Nicotinenazi Propoganda Questioned

I have never denied that smoking is a bad habit and a health hazard but my contention has always been that smoking is only "a contributing factor" in lung cancer not the full cause and this seems to be supported by the latest from the cancer community.

Rise in lung cancer in nonsmokers puzzling MDs

Updated Sat. Sep. 30 2006 11:28 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Doctors who treat lung cancer are facing a puzzling trend: every week about 65 Canadians who have never smoked are being told they have cancer in their lungs.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, an estimated 22,700 Canadians will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2006 and 19,300 will die of it.

About 437 Canadians will be diagnosed with lung cancer every week and an average of 371 lung cancer patients die every week.

Smoking has long been understood to be a key risk factor for lung cancer.

But according to information CTV's Avis Favaro received from doctors at Princess Margaret Hospital and the Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre in Toronto, 10 to 15 per cent of new lung cancer cases diagnosed are in people who have never smoked. Many have never been exposed to second-hand smoke.

In Canada, that adds up to 3,500 nonsmokers diagnosed with the disease each year.

Karry Langman is mother who's always tried to live a healthy life. She's never smoked. Yet at age 36, she discovered she had lung cancer.

Her only symptom was a cough that wouldn't go away, first thought to be pneumonia, and then asthma. She was X-rayed only after repeated visits to the doctor. The X-ray confirmed it was cancer.

"It was just a shock," Langman told CTV Newsnet. "It's just disbelief because it's lung cancer and I'm not a candidate for lung cancer."

So how did she get it? No one seems to know.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060929/nonsmoker_lungcancer_060929/20060930?hub=TopStories