A Look at Smoking Among
Hispanic Americans
By the National Cancer Institute
BETHESDA, Md. -- Smoking causes more preventable deaths (from lung cancer, heart
and lung disease, other cancers, and chronic illness) than any other single
behavioral factor––an estimated 443,000 deaths each year in the United States.
The most recent data estimates that about 8,400 Hispanic-Americans were
expected to be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009, with the vast majority of
these cases caused by smoking.
Lung cancer can be
treated, but rarely cured. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in
Hispanic men and––after breast cancer––the second-leading cause of cancer death
in Hispanic women. Hispanics are less likely to develop or die from lung cancer
than non-Hispanic whites—but when they are diagnosed they are more likely to be
diagnosed with a more serious advanced stage disease.
In
2010, almost 13 percent of Hispanics were current cigarette smokers, compared
to 21 percent of non-Hispanic whites. Men are more likely to smoke (almost 16
percent) than women (9 percent). Smoking rates are higher among Hispanic high
school students (18 percent) than Hispanic adults—a worrisome finding for
future lung cancer trends in Hispanics.
Immigrant
generation may affect cigarette smoking––nearly 17 percent of Hispanics who
were born in the United States smoke, whereas only about 11 percent of Hispanic
immigrants are smokers. Other patterns of smoking show that Hispanic subgroups
have different smoking rates.
Smoking
harms nearly every organ of the body and diminishes a person's overall health.
Millions of Americans have health problems caused by smoking, a leading cause
of cancer and death from cancer. Smoking causes many types of cancer, including
cancer of the lung, esophagus,
larynx, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach, and cervix, as well
as acute myeloid leukemia. Smoking also causes heart disease, stroke, aortic
aneurysm (a balloon-like bulge in an artery in the chest), chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease, asthma, hip fractures, and cataracts.
Trying To Quit
Regardless
of their age, people who quit smoking are less likely to die from illnesses
caused by smoking than those who continue smoking. Studies show that smokers
who quit at about age 30 reduce their chance of dying prematurely from
smoking-caused diseases by more than 90 percent. The risk of dying is cut in
half for those who stop smoking at age 50, and even people who quit at about
age 60 or older live longer and have healthier lives than those who continue to
smoke.
The
nicotine in tobacco is addictive and makes it very difficult to quit. Nicotine
dependence is the most common form of addiction in the country. Seventy percent
of the 45 million current U.S. smokers report they want to quit completely, and
the vast majority of these have tried to quit smoking at least once. The
majority of Hispanic smokers want to quit smoking and almost 10 percent of
Hispanic smokers report quitting smoking in the past year.
Smoking Quitline
Talk
with an NCI smoking cessation counselor for help quitting and to get answers to
smoking-related questions in English or Spanish. Call 1-877-44U-QUIT
(1-877-448-7848) toll free within the United States, Monday through Friday, 8:00
a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Many resources are also available on NCI's web
site, smokefree.gov.
NCI
leads the National Cancer Program and the NIH effort to dramatically reduce the
burden of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families,
through research into prevention and cancer biology, the development of new
interventions, and the training and mentoring of new researchers. Resources and
more information about cancer and smoking are available, please visit the NCI web site
at www.cancer.gov or call NCI's Cancer
Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237). More articles and
videos in the culturally relevant Lifelines series are available at www.cancer.gov/lifelines.
SOURCE National Cancer
Institute
If we look at it closely there are already many cases of teen smoking regardless of their nationality. Smoking is a worldwide epidemic and no nation has ever solved the problem yet. How can it be solved when in fact it is very legal? We couldn’t even solve those that are illegal how much if it is legal. I suggest that there should be corresponding punishments for teens to stop smoking.
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