A couple of months ago I heard some statistics that seemed to support my long-standing belief that smoking cigarettes is not the only cause of lung cancer. The report said that lung cancer in men was declining but increasing in women – including women who had never smoked.

Before I was in college in the early 1950’s, I was aware that most men and few women in my parents’ generation were smokers, and around that time we were warned that smoking might possibly be the cause of respiratory ailments, including lung cancer. Doctors seemed to be sure it did, and if a cancer patient was a smoker, tobacco was automatically blamed and few people bothered to look for other causes.

It seemed that a lot of long-time smokers didn’t die of lung cancer and many had no symptoms of the disease. And I knew of both men and women who suffered from it but had never used tobacco in any form.

The question “Do you smoke?” is still one of the first questions every doctor asks every new patient, no matter what the patient is seeking treatment for. I have long believed that there are other things that cause cancer – even among smokers.

If those recently reported statistics mean anything, then there must be something else that causes all those non-smoking women to become victims of the disease – some reason that does not affect men. I doubt if it has anything to do with the physical differences between the sexes, so it could be environmental. What are most women routinely exposed to that men are not? Or maybe I should ask what those women who are now developing lung cancer were exposed to over their lifetimes that the men of their generation were not.

At the time these women were in their late teens and twenties, women were still considered to be the main homemakers, even those women who held down jobs outside the home. They were responsible for doing the laundry, cleaning the bathroom, battling flies, mice and other household pests. They did the lion’s share of the gardening, and with the advent of products such as drain cleaners, oven cleaners, spray cans, paint rollers and other innovations, took on more and more of the nasty jobs that men had previously been responsible for. They were
exposed to a lot of potentially dangerous products, among them were bleach, ammonia, insecticides, weed killers, air fresheners, and personal products that few men used at the time, including spray deodorants and hair spray.

And women tended (as they still do) to stay in the house, breathing in those questionable fumes as they went about making beds, ironing clothes, vacuuming carpets and preparing meals.

Having kept house for close to seventy years, I sometimes wonder how many gallons of potentially deadly substances I inhaled, tiny whiffs at a time, over those years before I was diagnosed with lung cancer and
had life-saving surgery. The doctors, of course, once they discovered that I had been a smoker for several years in earlier times, never asked if I had been exposed to other potential carcinogens. I’m not claiming they were wrong in blaming the use of tobacco for my cancer, but everybody seems to assume that if a smoker develops cancer, there is no other possible cause.

So, how do they explain these recent statistics that show an increase in women non-smokers developing lung cancer while it decreases in men?

Just asking.

If you haven’t done anything about Valentine’s Day yet, at least let that special person know how much you value their presence in your life.

Believe me, it’s better to admit you forgot (or didn’t have time or couldn’t afford a gift) than to let it pass unacknowledged. Spending some extra time together, writing a sentimental little note, a couple extra hugs or an unexpected courtesy can speak as clearly as expensive gifts, extravagant dinners or elaborately arranged parties – as long as they are from the heart. I’m not speaking exclusively about romantic attachments here.

You have neighbors, teachers, friends, the kid who shovels your walk in winter or helps with the yard work, who are special. Tell them how much they matter.