Tobacco smoking and lung cancer disease in Chinese population

Term paper Topic: What factors in China and the U.S. contribute to the trade deficits
August 2, 2020
Sociology Paper
August 2, 2020

Tobacco smoking and lung cancer disease in Chinese population

With an estimated population of about 1.3 billion people, Chinas health care system needs are also enormous. Some of the diseases that are experienced in China are tied to the lifestyle of the Chinese people. Many of these diseases impose an enormous cost on the nation in terms of the hours lost and cost of giving medication. Lung cancer is a common disease in China. The main cause of this disease is smoking, as well as being exposed to indirect smoke from the smokers, and also the smoke produced in the environment. Chinas high speed economic in the last three decades has a major effect on the environment and human health. The reliance in coal has a great effect on the environment due excessive fume in the surrounding. Exposure to cooking fumes also has a great effect another pollution of the environment. Incest burning is one other activity among the households in china that pollutes the air. All, this incidents are part contributors of lung cancer in china. Cigarette smoking and lung cancer.Tobacco smoking and lung cancer disease in Chinese populationIn the recent decade, there has been a substantial increase in consumption of tobacco in China, particularly in men. According to statistics, it is estimated that the approximately only 16% of current smokers among men and 10% of current women amongst women worldwide would die because of lung cancer (Tang, 2010). The risk is determined by the duration of smoking, intensity of smoking and exposure of asbestos among other factors. Another factor that affects the risk of getting lung cancer is body mass index (BMI) (Koh, 2010). A recent study of prospective study of BMI and lung cancer carried out on 220 000 Chinese men revealed that the population with low BMI had a higher risk of getting lung cancer. Between April of 1993 and December of 1998, 63 257 subjects who did not have lung cancer were enrolled for a research to find out the relationship between smoking and lung cancer. All the individuals involved in the research were from two major dialects of Chinese in Singapore. A trained interviewer interviewed them and collected data on their BMI. The results of the data were given out in December of 2006. According to the results, 1024 cohort participants, which included 717 males and 325 females were diagnosed with lung cancer. The mean time interval baseline interview and diagnosing was about 10.7 years. Risk of getting cancer increased with increase in the number of cigarette one took daily as well as the direction of time one had smoked. It was also noted that those who quit smoking had reduction in risk of getting cancer. The statistics also revealed that there was a higher risk of getting lung cancer if one had a lower BMI for the former smokers; however, the relationship was inverse for current smokers (Koh, 2010).The environmental factors are also contributors to having smoke in the air at subsequently causes lung cancer. The cooking fumes contain compounds, which causes lung cancer among non-smokers in Hong Kong. The usage of cooking oil through frying and deep frying high temperatures and without extracting provides enough smoke that causes lung cancer. Another environmental factor contributing to smoke and subsequently lung cancer is burning of mosquito coils. The ingredients of these coils are plant-based materials that when burnt they produce a lot of smoke. Charcoal stoves and wooden stoves are also other contributors in the environment that causes smoke. The burning of the plants products plays a vital role of causing lung cancer (Tang, 2010).The fact that the effects that cigarettes cause are many needs collection. A plan therefore needs to be drafted in educating people against this epidemic. The effects of epidemic need to be taught to people as well as the benefits associated with smoking. For a start, the government can get involved in ensuring that any of the advertisement used to advertise cigarettes broadly reflect the enormous effects they have on their health. Policies that ensure limiting of the usage of the products should also be put in place. The schools programs can also be of importance in educating the young ones on the great effects of tobacco. The reason behind this is because there are people who get involved in smoking at a young age, and education to children can reduce the number. It is also notable that China is one of the biggest growing countries of tobacco and there might be a problem in trying to accomplish this.Tobacco smoke has so many chemicals, which are identified as poisonous while some of them are capable of causing cancer. Nicotine is the one of the chemical in cigarettes and is classified as an insecticide. It is the bit in the cigarette that causes an addiction in people and the desire to take more of the product. The link between the nicotine additions exhibited in cigarettes can be attributed to the smoke carcinogens contained in cigarettes. About 20 carcinogens taken by a human can cause a tumor in the lung (Koh, 2010). The development of this is formation of an induction of lung cancer. The first step of getting lung cancer is nicotine addiction; the next step is the metabolic activation where elements like carcinogen get activated, then the DNA gets the miscoded results to DNA adducts. Then DNA adducts causes mutation to occur and cells whose DNA has changed are removed through apoptosis. Incase a permanent mutation process takes permanently in the main region of a tumor suppressor gene; deactivation of the tumor suppressor gene occurs (Koh, 2010). If the process happens severally, there rises a likelihood that the cells lose their normal growth and they finally grow to development of lung cancer. The best way or even the only way to avoid instances of having lung cancer is ensuring that one breaks the sequence followed that leads to formation of the cancer.Unfortunately, passive smoking also referred to as environmental tobacco smoke is also estimated to cause lung cancer. The source of the risk is attributed to the burning of tobacco products as well as the smoke exhaled by smokers. It is estimated that a non smoking spouse may inhale an equivalent of one cigarette if the other spouse is a heavy smoker. The solution to cancer patient on their health is undergoing surgery to remove the tumor (Molina, 2008).Quitting smoking can not only bring reduction in financial usage, but there are also other accrued benefits like the reduction of the risk of getting lung cancer. According to the results of the research on the 1042 participants, quitting smoking resulted to a reduction on the likelihood of getting lung cancer. It is however notable that for the risk of getting cancer to decline it has to take some several years for it to happen. The more the years that someone stays without smoking again increases the benefits that are accrued from quitting smoking. However, the risk of facing premature death or contracting cancer is dependant on several factors. Among them is the duration that one has had involved themselves in smoking (Molina, 2010). It is evident that those people who have smoked for long face a higher risk of contracting cancer. The age that someone got involved in smoking also matters; individuals who started smoking at an early age have a greater risk of contacting cancer as well as having premature death because their lungs might not have developed enough as compared to those who stated smoking when they were already old enough. The number of cigarettes that one used to take daily also matters, as heavy smokers are likely to be in a higher risk of contracting cancer than the individuals who are not heavy smokers. Last but not the least, the state that the smoker was in when quitting smoking that is, if he was sick or not; if not sick, the risk of contracting cancer is usually lower. It is also notable that for those people who had already developed cancer the risk of contacting another cancer lowers with quitting smoking (Molina, 2010). However, quitting smoking should also be extended to those people who have also been diagnosed with cancer. The reason behind this is to ensure the response of their body to healing, as well as lowering the risk of a second cancer from occurring. It is also beneficial for people diagnosed to quit smoking since it reduces chances of having the cancer return, or reducing chances of respiratory failure.ConclusionThe effects of tobacco are so many to tobacco smokers as well as to the non-smokers. As the above-mentioned research has shown, getting smoke in our system can be achieved through active and passive smoking. Other environmental factors also have a big contribution to the smoke in the environment. Lung cancer is one disease that can be caused by the action of having smoke in our bodies. Therefore, it should be the responsibility of everyone to make sure that they play their part in ensuring that they prevent scenarios that may cause unnecessary smoke in their bodies. However, the biggest responsibility falls on the smokers since their action affects even the nonsmokers (Molina, 2008). The meaning of this is that if the society is not infected, it is affected indirectly. Lung cancer is a disease that is majorly associated with smoking. The effects of the disease are detrimental and sometimes cause death among the infected. Individuals therefore need to control the smoking in their system to avoid being affected by this disease. Contrary to not doing so means that there will be increased deaths due to this epidemic, as well as losing a lot of money. As earlier noted, a lot of money is spent every year in curing the victims of cancers well as clearing the cigarette butts. The money used will be of benefits when used to other sectors of the economy instead of using this way. It is therefore every smokers calling to ensure they minimize the amount of cigarettes they smoke daily, or better still quit smoking. As described, quitting smoking has many benefits to both the individuals and the environment in general.