Lung Cancer and Occupational Hazards Considered

The chances are good that you have known someone during your lifetime that has had lung cancer and most likely you have met someone which has died from lung cancer as well. Someday hopefully there will be a perfect cure for lung cancer, but that someday is not here yet.

Lung cancer is very serious and something that can be deadly. In many cases surgery treatment is the only option, but once the cancer has spread surgery is no longer a viable option. Men are more likely to get lung cancer statistically, but recently the numbers are much closer.



Those who smoke are obviously at a much higher risk of lung cancer, and although everyone knows this heavy smokers continue to take risks and smoking. Smoking more than a pack a day severely increases the risks of lung cancer. But smoking is only one of the causes of lung cancer and it can greatly increase the risk if smoking is coupled with an occupational risk too.

According to the Cancer Reference Book; lung cancer tends to occur with those who work around chemicals and perhaps this is why OSHA now has "Right to Know" laws on the books so that workers know the risks of the chemical they work with. Some of the listed occupations at extreme risk are:

* Asbestos Workers
* Textile Workers
* Arsenic Smelter Workers
* Manufacturers of Insecticides (w/arsenic)
* Taxidermists
* Sheep Dip Workers
* Copper Smelter Workers
* Chrome Workers
* Miners of Radioactive Minerals
* Manufacturers of Isopropyl Alcohol
* Coke Oven Operators
* Paraffin Pressers
* Mule Spinners
* Petroleum Workers

Those in the highest age risks are between 50 to seventy years old. If you live in a high-air-pollution area like China's industrial cities you are at a huge risk, if you smoke you are at greater risk and if you work in one of those industries above on top of that, especially if there are not strict policies in place to protect you, many believe that you are doomed. So, please consider all this.