Topic: Quit SmokingYoung smokers' risks
A study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has shown that smoking in the teenage
years causes dramatic and lifelong DNA damage in the lungs. In fact, the young smokers could be at a
permanently higher risk of developing lung cancer, even if they later quit.
|
|
Teenage Smoking Causes Permanent Lung Damage
This information comes at a time when surveys by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
indicate that the percentage of high school smokers rose from 34.8 percent in 1995 to 36.4 percent in 1997.
In this study, researchers tested for DNA alterations in the non-cancerous lung tissue of patients being
treated for lung tumors. The healthy tissue was tested for the number of DNA alterations per 10 billion
cells. Researchers found that former smokers who started between age 7 and 15 had an average of 164 genetic
alterations. Ex-smokers who started between ages 15 and 17 had on average 115 alterations. And among
former smokers who did not start smoking until after age 20, the number of DNA alterations averaged 81.
Experts say that DNA alterations in the lung tissue occur when chemicals in
tobacco smoke fuse with genes
in the DNA and cause mutations that can significantly increase the likelihood of cancer.
|
