Lung cancer and tobacco consumption (2001)

The pronounced increase in lung cancer is a fact that has been established repeatedly in the years since 1920. The reason for this increase has been attributed to a range of circumstances by different authors. Most importantly, certain air pollutants have been investigated. Lung cancer due to occupational exposures is relevant in this context, which in the case of the Schneeberg lung cancer and cancer due to chromate or asbestos is recognized as an occupational disease. Exposure to exhaust fumes of motors, which are inhaled in many occupations but also by the general public in cities and on main roads, has also been examined. To this day it has not, however, been convincingly shown that increased inhalation of such fumes leads to an increase in carcinoma of the lung. Arguments against this notion include the experiments of Schmidtmann,8 the fact that country and city dwellers contribute to the same extent to the increase in lung cancer, and that occupations dealing with combustion engines are not particularly frequent among the diseased. The observation that the male gender is much more frequently afflicted by carcinoma of the lung than the female does not exactly support the notion that this cancer is predominantly caused by exhaust fumes because both genders are exposed to almost the same degree. The marked predominance of the male gender in lung cancer (six times more men than women contracted the disease in our material) suggests important internal factors in the development of the disease. However, there is also an external factor, which is much more common in men than in women: smoking. It has indeed repeatedly been pointed out that a close association between the increase in tobacco consumption and carcinoma of the lung could exist. In the first instance this assumption is supported by the results from experimental cancer research. [Extract]