November is Lung Cancer Month
Photo by Cori Kindred on Flickr, Picture from Physiology for Young People 1884
According to Uniting Against Lung Cancer, an organization dedicated to lung cancer research and awareness, 80% of all nonsmokers diagnosed with lung cancer are women. Breast cancer awareness has better PR, but lung cancer kills more woman than breast, uterine and ovarian cancer combined.
We tend to distance ourselves from lung cancer because of the perception that lung cancer victims are getting what they deserve - the first thing we say when we hear that someone was diagnosed with lung cancer is, “Was she a smoker?” - but 60% of newly diagnosed patients are former or never smokers.
Four things we can do:
1. Stop smoking.
2. Spread this information.
3. Test our homes for radon.
4. Support Lung Cancer research.
The government doesn’t support Lung Cancer research as fully as it supports that of other cancers ($29,480.00 2008 federal research dollars per death for breast cancer vs. $1,299.00 for lung cancer), so it’s on us to popularize the cause.
The following are just some of the lung cancer organizations that fund research and awareness:
Uniting Against Lung Cancer
International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
The LUNGevity Foundation
National Familial Lung Cancer Registry
The National Lung Cancer Partnership
And there is no lung cancer equivalent to the pink breast cancer campaigns, but here is a small way for theater lovers to make a difference.
Also, I kind of love thetruth.com, which makes you wonder if people that work for the tobacco industry really are the scum of the earth.
