When it comes to cancer and especially lung cancer, the first thing that comes to mind is cigarettes, which have a very old and interesting history. Like cancer, although its history does not date back to Egyptian mummies, we know that it spread to our world in the 1400s, when Europeans discovered the American continent. The natives of the American continent produced tobacco for medical and religious purposes. Even though Rodrigo Jerez, the first person caught smoking tobacco in Europe, was interpreted as being possessed by the devil and was sentenced to prison; In the 16th century, the habit of smoking tobacco spread throughout Europe. A century later, commercial tobacco cultivation would begin in America.
The first research on the tobacco-cancer relationship was published by British doctor John Hill in 1761. The first statistical association between smoking and cancer emerged in Germany during the Nazi period. Although smoking bans gradually increased at that time, it became increasingly widespread during the First and Second World Wars, with the use and supply of cigarettes by soldiers on the front lines. When the war ended, 60-80% of the world's adult population was smoking.
Tobacco was initially smoked with sticks or pipes, but today's cigarette emerged after the method of wrapping it in tobacco leaves or thin paper.
World Health Organization, According to the Tobacco Atlas prepared with the contributions of the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation, every year in Turkey, 83 thousand 100 people die due to smoking-related reasons, while 252 thousand children and 14.5 million adults use tobacco products. Lung cancer is the most common cancer in men in Turkey, and its incidence rate in women is now ranked 5th.
The name of nicotine comes from Jean Nicot, who popularized tobacco smoking in France. The most familiar substance in cigarettes is nicotine, but nicotine only creates the addictive function of this monster. The cancer-causing part of the issue stems from the transformation of natural substances in the burning tobacco plant into combustion products such as nitrosamines and benzopyrene.
What is more dangerous than this transformation is; The transformation of today's people into a community that thinks that life will continue as they wish, without changing their deadly habits and vital handicaps.
Let's quit smoking and embrace life first. Otherwise, life will never be embraced first…
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