Lung Cancer
People's ideas about the causes of lung cancer
Research has shown that the major cause of lung cancer is smoking and the use of tobacco. Smokers and ex-smokers are at greatest risk of developing the disease. For those that give up smoking for 15 years or more the chance of developing the lung cancer is similar to that of a non-smoker. Some of the people interviewed here were sure that their lung cancer had been caused by smoking.
He believes that smoking and later passive smoking caused his lung cancer.
He believes that smoking and later passive smoking caused his lung cancer.
It was the in thing in those days all through the fifties and sixties for people to smoke, and of course I was one of the people caught up in it. In 1967 I took a public house and of course the atmosphere in a public house didn't help matters. I did in fact give up smoking in the, in the late seventies, completely myself, and although I gave up smoking because I had read so much about problems, it was obviously too late. And another thing was that my occupation at the time meant that I was taking, although I wasn't smoking I was taking in other people's smoke anyway.
There are other risk factors for the causes of lung cancer such as age, genetic risk, past cancer treatment and previous lung disease like TB (tuberculosis). It is also known that mesothelioma (a form of lung cancer) is caused by contact with asbestos. It can develop many years after exposure to asbestos.
Explains that mesothelioma was caused by contact with asbestos.
Explains that mesothelioma was caused by contact with asbestos.
And in those days, back in 63/64, everything was lagged in asbestos. The boilers that we had was lagged in asbestos, all the pipe-work was lagged in asbestos, even the roof was lagged in asbestos so you just couldn't avoid it. Any pipe-work leaks we had we had to knock the asbestos off with a hammer, sawed a bit of bad pipe-work out and re-weld a new piece in. The worst, the worst exposure really was every two years, I worked there ten years so if you like five times I was exposed to, when we did insurance testing for the boilers. Because on the outside of the boiler it was, the lagging was six inches thick and it was, because we were young kids, apprentices and that, it was our job to strip all that off. And they're very large steam boilers and we'd spend a week nearly just hacking and pulling all this asbestos off, lagging off the boilers. And then once you get down to the boiler itself you'd be wire brushing the rivets and the seams, and all that, ready for pressuring it for insurance testing.
And I mean as kids we just, we played in it, we'd be knee deep in it some days and we'd be throwing it at each other and just messing about in general with it. Nobody realised at the time that it was, that it was going to be a problem later on in life. And of course with asbestos the incubation period is between thirty and forty years so you can be quite happy as I was for forty years nearly and then it just changes your life without any warning at all really.
People may develop lung cancer without ever having smoked themselves. The impact of environmental tobacco smoke on health has been disputed, but one man was told that his cancer had developed because of passive smoking. He felt annoyed and stigmatised when a doctor assumed he had been a smoker, (also see 'Feelings of stigma, shame and guilt about having lung cancer').
He is sure that lung cancer patients are stigmatised because of smoking.
He is sure that lung cancer patients are stigmatised because of smoking.
When I went to the, to see an oncologist for further treatments because I'd had an operation and I'd had half of my left lung removed, I asked them what he thought what caused it and he just laughed and said 'That's obvious, through smoking.' And me wife who was with me at the time, and we've been together since we were 14 and she just said 'Well he's never smoked'.
So right away what I was, annoyed me as well as that, on my, my medical records I'm classed as a smoker and every time I ever went for review after that they would ask me 'Are you still smoking?' because that's down there. And no matter how I told them, I'd say 'Look I don't want that on there, I never smoked.' but its only my word that can go against that, that says that.
Thinks his lung cancer was caused by smoking and other factors such as diesel fumes.
Thinks his lung cancer was caused by smoking and other factors such as diesel fumes.
I started smoking when I was 12 years old, back in the 60s, in fact back in the 50s, God am I that old, back in the 50s. It was just one of those things in those days, everybody did it. Like nowadays everybody doesn't do it, which is a darn good thing. And I walk along here seeing the kids around here who are all smoking and I thought you bloody fools, if only you knew. But trying to talk to them is like talking to a brick wall, they just don't want to know.
Did you smoke till quite recently?
I smoked up until let's see now, I think smoked up until three years ago when I actually went, I actually stopped, I went on Nicotinell patches and actually stopped smoking for a year and a half. And then I started smoking, but I was only, I was smoking roll-ups, I wasn't smoking normal cigarettes I was smoking roll-ups. But I must admit, and I shouldn't do it, I still have the occasional one now, it's only the occasional one though. I shouldn't do it but after 40 odd years it's a hard habit to break even though you've got all the tablets and all the wonderful things in the world to stop you from doing it.
But that's what they reckoned caused it was smoking. But it could've been anything basically. I used to work you know with asbestos but I know it's not that because they would've picked that up on the bronchoscopy, they would've picked it up on that. I was in the Army so you know fumes, diesel, gasoline, the whole business, the whole schmuck all the way through, it could've been anything there that done that, something just triggered it. But they reckoned I'd had it for about nine years, but this was, this was just the, this was the top end of it, this was it saying enough is enough do something about it or the body do something about it.
And as I said it was a shortage of breath that May trip. I'd come up those stairs and I thought what is wrong with me? I said "I've never been like this before." Of course I thought I had this viral infection in the throat. Well I put it down to, I put it down a certain amount to smoking, it must be. Smoking, the environment as well, diesel fumes, it's got to be something there.
Some of those interviewed here were heavy smokers, but adamant that environmental factors and chemicals, such as spray paint, carbon dust, or asbestos, had contributed to their condition. A few people were angry that on occasion doctors appeared to be judgmental and unsympathetic, blaming them for their disease. However, one person's doctor had said that smoking and tobacco were not necessarily to blame.
Says that other factors such as environmental pollution, chemicals in food may be to blame as...
Says that other factors such as environmental pollution, chemicals in food may be to blame as...
We [in our support group] all agree that there's other things other than smoking that can cause lung cancer you know like environment, like where I live there's a motorway over the road. Just over the bridge there used to be a chemical factory, all my life you know when I were a child growing up round here, and it were pumping thick yellow smoke out 24 hours a day. And unfortunately in this area there is quite a lot of people do get lung cancer you know, it's quite common. But you don't find that out until you've actually got it yourself, because nobody wants to talk about it so you know.
So you think the environment is also [to blame]?
Oh certainly yeah and along with everything you put in your mouth like stuff they they're putting on food to give it a longer shelf life, things that they're doing to make them all the same size and the same shape, all the chemicals that you get from that you know from that source. So yeah I think there's a lot of other things, why it's more rampant now than it's ever been before you know.
Diet may play a part in the incidence of lung cancer. Some evidence suggests that high consumption of saturated fats, and a low intake of fruit and vegetables increases the risk of the disease. One man thought that his diet may have played a part in causing his lung cancer.
Thinks his lung cancer was caused by smoking and another factor such as a poor diet.
Thinks his lung cancer was caused by smoking and another factor such as a poor diet.
Yes the surgeon did say to me that cigarette smoking certainly hadn't helped but he was pretty sure it was cigarette smoking and AN other and he was equally sure that he wouldn't be able to identify what that AN other was.
AN other?
Another, another area, another causal agent for the cancer. I suspect poor diet will have had some you know part to play. I'm not a great eater of fruit and vegetables and that is, they definitely minimise the likelihood of the development of lung cancer. And I was, and I'm a terrible dairy products man but that's changing now.
Other suggestions by the people we interviewed about the causes of lung cancer included stress, bereavement, physical trauma and faulty genes. One woman was convinced that her cancer had been caused by a clot on the lung.
A few people had no idea why they had developed lung cancer. They suggested that cancer was 'one of those things', 'a cell gone awry', or 'just something that happens'. One person suggested that her lung cancer might have been caused by an attack of Asian flu. Some pointed out that people can smoke all their lives yet not develop lung cancer.
Last reviewed May 2016.
Last updated May 2016.
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