ABSTRACT
Chemopreventive Agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638 16.6 Chemoprevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638 16.7 Environmental Tobacco Smoke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640 16.8 Other Diseases Caused by Inhalation
of Tobacco Smoke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
The smoking of tobacco products is one of the major public health problems of our time. Its most dire consequence is lung cancer. A rare disease a century ago, it is now responsible for most cancer deaths worldwide, some 900,000 new cases annually in men and 300,000 in women (Stewart and Kleihues, 2003). In the U.S., lung cancer accounts for more deaths annually than colon, breast, and prostate cancer combined (Szabo, 2001). Although during the last few years the incidence of lung cancer in the U.S. seems to have decreased or at least plateaued out to some extent, there remains, nevertheless, some concern that it might continue to increase in certain selected subpopulations, such as teenage girls (Wingo et al., 1999). Worldwide, the disease seems to be destined to increase further, particularly in Asia, and is likely to become a massive public health burden with considerable costs to society (Lam et al., 2001; Pisani et al., 1999). It is a sobering thought that we now know that the main causative agent of lung cancer, tobacco smoke, is the only known human carcinogen for which it would be possible to accomplish zero exposure, and yet exposure continues to grow in large sections of the population.
