Lung cancer is not completely preventable but managing some controllable risk factors such as smoking can lower one’s chances of developing cancer.
According to the Canadian Psychological Association, people have trouble quitting due to how highly addictive nicotine is, causing smoking to become a part of a daily routine or a response to daily triggers.
My grandfather had been smoking since he was eight and died of lung cancer although he was warned about the dangers of smoking.
This young age was more normalized at the time.
Vaping and e-cigarettes — which Health Canada linked the metals and chemicals in them to cancer — have become more common and at an increasingly young age.
Humber College is a smoke-free campus including vaping and e-cigarettes on all campuses, buildings, or any grounds leased by the college.
However, as encouraging as it is to not promote such a harmful habit, I remember students at my high school vaping in the washrooms. I worked with one individual who vaped in the walk-in fridge to hide that he was smoking during work hours.
Nothing is stopping college students from getting creative with this as outdoor spaces or more secluded areas in the school are not consistently monitored.
My grandfather’s son, my father Domenic Vellucci explained how highly addictive smoking is through my grandfather’s experience.
“He was rolling his cigarettes, basically buying the tobacco fresh and smoking it without a filter,” Vellucci said.
“When he started having some breathing problems, he went to filtered cigarettes which to him was an improvement,” he said.
There are however methods to quit smoking such as prescription medicine, including Varenicline which blocks nicotine’s effects in the brain that make you desire to smoke.
A person is hunched over as they fill up their vape. Photo credit: Unsplash/Vaporesso
Nicotine gum can also help people quit smoking as it can be used every two hours to control withdrawal symptoms.
Some may vape with the intent of eventually quitting altogether or they may have the idea that it is a healthier alternative.
Health Canada notes although vaping is less harmful than smoking cigarettes, the best way to improve your health is to quit all forms of nicotine.
Health Canada announced last year that Canada will be the first country in the world where warning labels will be on individual cigarettes with king-size cigarettes being the first to have these warnings and be available in stores by the end of July 2024.
A study reported in the Harm Reduction Journal in April 2021 stated that Graphic Health Warnings (GHWs) did not have a significant impact on cigarette sales in Canada.
It is hard to say if putting warnings on individual cigarettes will change anything as many have ignored the warnings on the cigarette boxes.
November is lung cancer awareness month where lung health and cancer awareness are promoted through social media or certain organizations, but people still continue to smoke.
If people do not want to quit, no matter what is shown or said to them, they will not.