Smoking Cessation Education's Role in Reducing Lung Cancer Risk

This essay examines the relationship between smoking cessation and lung cancer, highlighting the significant public health issue posed by smoking in the United States. The essay presents statistics on smoking prevalence, mortality rates, and the causal link between smoking and lung cancer. It emphasizes that 80-90% of lung cancers are due to smoking. The core argument revolves around the effectiveness of smoking cessation education in reducing the risk of lung cancer. The essay defines education as the dissemination of knowledge about the effects of smoking and methods for quitting, emphasizing the importance of early education to prevent initiation of smoking habits. The essay posits that education campaigns can effectively provide information about the harmful effects of smoking to children and adults, leading to reduced smoking rates and, consequently, lower incidences of lung cancer. It concludes that education on smoking cessation reduces the 10-year risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer compared to those who do not receive education.

RUNNING HEAD: SMOKING CESSATION AND LUNG CANCER 1
Smoking cessation and lung cancer
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SMOKING CESSATION AND LUNG CANCER 2
Smoking cessation and lung cancer
According to different studies, smoking of cigarette is one of the leading cause of
preventable diseases in the United States of America. Statistics indicate that over 480,000 people
die on an annual basis in the USA due to smoking (McBride, Blocklin, Lipkus, Klein, &
Brandon, 2015) .This figures translates to 1 out of every 5 deaths in USA. Among 100 US adults,
15 who are above 18 years smoked cigarettes in 2016.This is 15% of the population. It is also
estimated that more than 37.8 million adults in USA smoke cigarettes. Besides, more than 16
million live with smoke related infections such as lung cancer.This is a serious public health
issue that needs a series of interventions.
80-90% of lung cancers in United States of America is due to smoking. Besides smoking,
the use of other tobacco products like cigars and pipes also increase the risks of lung cancer.
Tobacco is known to contain more than 7000 different chemicals with 70 of them known to
cause cancer. According to studies, people who smoke are 15-30 times more likely to acquire
lung cancer and eventually die as opposed to those who do not smoke (Moyer, 2014). The
number of cigarettes and number of years an individual smokes is directly proportional to the
risk of getting and dying from lung cancer. Since smoking of cancer is directly linked to lung
cancer, there should be different strategies to encourage cessation of smoking. One such method
is education. In this assignment, there will be a discussion on if smoking cessation education can
reduce the risk of lung cancer as compared to those who do not get education.
Education on smoking cessation reduce the 10 year risk of being diagnosed with lung
cancer compared to those who do not receive education. Education can be defined as sharing
knowledge about a certain phenomenon. In this case, education involves providing information
to those people who smoke in the United States of America about the effects of smoking and

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how can quit the behavior. Different studies have established that in the United States of
America, smoking begins at a very tender age of around 15 years and becomes addictive up to
adulthood (Piñeiro, Simmons, Palmer, Correa, & Brandon, 2016). The reason why majority
smoke at that early age is due to the lack of knowledge on the potential harm of cigarettes.
Education campaigns can therefore be used as a tool to provide the information about the
harmful effects of smoking to the children that include lung cancer .Once the children and adults
are aware of this dangers, they would shun away from the habit (Torre, Siegel, & Jemal, 2015).
As explained earlier, there is a direct correlation between the number of cigarettes and years
smoked to lung cancer. This therefore means that once smoking reduces, the incidences of lung
cancer also reduce. This therefore implies that cases of lung cancer among those who got
education on smoking cessation would reduce as compared to those who did not get the
education.

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References
McBride, C. M., Blocklin, M., Lipkus, I. M., Klein, W. M., & Brandon, T. H. (2015).
Patient's lung cancer diagnosis as a cue for relatives' smoking cessation: evaluating
the constructs of the teachable moment. Psycho-Oncology, 26(1), 88-95.
doi:10.1002/pon.4011
Moyer, V. A. (2014). Screening for Lung Cancer: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
Recommendation Statement. Annals of Internal Medicine, 160(5), 330-338.
doi:10.7326/m13-2771
Piñeiro, B., Simmons, V. N., Palmer, A. M., Correa, J. B., & Brandon, T. H. (2016).
Smoking cessation interventions within the context of Low-Dose Computed
Tomography lung cancer screening: A systematic review. Lung Cancer, 98, 91-98.
doi:10.1016/j.lungcan.2016.05.028
Torre, L. A., Siegel, R. L., & Jemal, A. (2015). Lung Cancer Statistics. Lung Cancer and
Personalized Medicine, 1-19. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-24223-1_1