Scottish Womens' Death Rate From Lung Cancer Up 11% For Decade Ending In 2008 - Telegraph

[hatrack]

The increase also bucks the trend for death rates from other types of cancer north of the Border, all of which are going down. Lung cancer deaths in men plummeted by 21 per cent in the 10 years to 2008, but increased by more than 11 per cent among women.

Over the past decade overall cancer death rates have gone down by 12 per cent for men with cancer and five per cent for women. Lung, bowel, breast and oesophagus cancers remain the big killers. Scottish ministers welcomed the reduction in overall deaths, but said they were trying to discourage unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as smoking.

However, the figures also reinforced major health differences across Scotland, with those living in the poorest areas 40 per cent more likely to have cancer than those in the wealthiest neighbourhoods. Death rates in the most deprived communities are 75 per cent higher than those in the richest areas.

Dr Richard Simpson, Scottish Labour health spokesman, said: “I welcome the general improvement in cancer survival rates, but I am both disappointed and deeply concerned that more women are dying of lung cancer. “This mainly reflects the increase in smoking among women over the past 20 years.”

EDIT

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/6447756/More-Scottish-women-die-of-lung-cancer.html

[juno jones]

1. The poorest there live in many of the same places the poorest did

a hundred years ago. What kind of toxins were dumped there, how many have accumulated over the course of time? I don't know the answer, but that is where I'd start looking.

[joshcryer]

2. Looks like it is due to smoking, a vice more common among poorer people.

But, I am of the belief that other environmental contaminants are at least partially responsible for smoker connected lung cancer. Compare Japans lung cancer rates to the USA, stark difference (50% smokers in Japan, nearly 70% less lung cancer).

[Nihil]

3. I'd agree with that ...

... there are far more women (and girls) smoking now than there used to be
ten, twenty years ago ... not just in Scotland either ...

:shrug: