According to a professor from UCSD Med School in San Diego, the dangers of smoking have increased, and it is more risky to smoke today than it was in the 1960's. Professor emeritus David Burns led the study, where lung cancer death rates were compared over time.
The study found that over the past 40 years, the risk of dying from lung cancer has doubled. One of the reasons for this is the use of filtered cigarettes. Smokers end up having to draw harder on the cigarette to get their fix, yet these cigarettes deliver just as much nicotine and tar.
By drawing harder on cigarettes a smoker ends up drawing a greater amount of carcinogens deeper into the lungs, which causes a greater variety of cancers.
There is also the modern trend of curing tobacco in the U.S., but process ends up creating a cancer-causing chemical called nitrosamine. Burns found that in countries where this process is not in use and where this chemical is not found in cigarettes, cancer death rates are lower.
Tobacco companies have been defending themselves with the argument that this article has not been published, therefor making it unreliable. But Burns feels that once his study is published reactions from the industry will change.
There are many documentations of people smoking and living nearly a century. It is very likely that the way tobacco is processed these days has a lot to do with the danger of lighting up.
[Via: kpbs.org]
