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The latest national cancer report from China’s National Cancer Center shows that more than 3.8 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2018, over 10,000 each day, Science and Technology Daily reported on Thursday.
According to the report, lung cancer is the most common disease among all malignant tumors, and studies show that the proportion of non-smoking women who suffer from lung cancer has been on the rise in recent years.
Second-hand smoke the main cause
Liang Chaoyang, professor and deputy director of the thoracic surgery department at China-Japan Friendship Hospital, said second-hand smoke, cooking smoke and air pollution are the main causes for the rise of female lung cancer patients.
More than 700 million women and children in China are victims of second-hand smoke. To deal with the problem, many cities have banned smoking in public places.
Studies showed that if a man smokes, the probability of his wife getting lung cancer is more than 200 percent that of non-smokers.
Passive smoking is more harmful than active smoking, said Liang. He added that cigarette emissions contain more cancer-causing substances than the smoke inhaled. The emission contains five times more carbon monoxide and three times more tar and nicotine.
In China, 55 percent of women above the age of 15 are affected by passive smoking every day. Many lung cancer therapists noted that smoking at home or in public places is not only selfish and immoral but a kind of“chronic murder.”
Cooking emissions also matter
Another crucial cancer-causing factor is cooking emissions.
Chinese people could use a variety of cooking methods, including frying, boiling and stir-frying, to make food more delicious. Studies found that when cooking with hot oil, the PM2.5 in the air can quickly rise several dozen times.
"China's unique way of cooking is a main cause of the high occurrence of female lung cancer," said Professor Zhi Xiuyi, director of lung cancer center at Capital Medical University. In general, women spend more time in the kitchen than men, so they are more exposed to harmful smoke.
A research team led by Zhou Caicun, professor at the tumor research institute of Tongji University in Shanghai, said that smoke in the kitchen is directly related to the temperature of the oil when cooking.
According to the Science and Technology Daily, animal experiments show that the oil mist formed when rapeseed oil and soybean oil are heated to 270-280 C can cause chromosomal damage to cells, which is considered to be related to cancer.
Long stays in the cooking smoke environment will lead to strong irritation to people’s nose, eyes and throat, which may cause rhinitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other diseases. People with COPD are more likely to develop heart diseases, lung cancer and many other health problems.
