High Cancer Rates in Smokers - Could Asbestos Be Contributing?
The One-time Popularity of Tobacco Smoking: A Common Habit with Deadly Consequences
Tobacco smoking, including cigars, pipes, and especially cigarettes, gained immense popularity throughout the 20th century. In the early 1900s, smoking was not only socially acceptable but widely endorsed in everyday advertisements and even by public figures. For years, it was “just something you did,” with many turning to cigarettes to fit in with peers or to unwind after a busy day.
By the mid-20th century, smoking rates had skyrocketed, driven by persistent marketing efforts and the media’s portrayal of smoking as a glamorous habit. Companies like Philip Morris (now Altria Group), R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson (now part of British American Tobacco), and Lorillard (now part of Reynolds American), dished out tons of dollars to keep society hooked on their products while making fervent attempts to keep any consequences under wraps.
The dark side of smoking began to surface as early as the 1950s, when research revealed an undeniable connection between tobacco use and lung cancer.
The landmark study by Doll and Hill in 1950 established a direct link between the two, leading to a series of public health campaigns in the 1960s aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of smoking. The U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, released in 1964, was a key component of this effort, leading to the introduction of warning labels on cigarette packages and restrictions on advertising, including on television, the radio, billboards, and more.
One of the most notable lawsuits that resulted from these efforts was the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) of 1998, a historic settlement between the four largest U.S. tobacco companies (mentioned above) and the attorneys general of 46 states. The agreement required tobacco companies to pay billions of dollars to the states to cover healthcare costs associated with smoking and to fund anti-smoking programs.
Due to these efforts, today smoking rates have been steadily declining over the years. However, many individuals worldwide continue to engage in this bad habit. In fact, still today, smoking remains a major contributor to lung cancer diagnoses, responsible for approximately 85% of all cases.
Smoking and Its Link to Other Cancers
While lung cancer is the most well-known consequence of smoking, it is not the only cancer that has been linked to tobacco use. Many others, including mouth, throat, esophagus, pancreas, bladder, kidney, and cervix cancer, have also resulted in smokers with studies showing that tobacco users are roughly 15-30 times more likely to develop these cancers compared to non-smokers. Overall, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), smoking is still responsible for approximately 30% of all cancer deaths in the United States, lung cancer or otherwise.
Why is smoking tobacco so dangerous to your health?
What makes smoking so dangerous the amount of carcinogens these products, including benzene, formaldehyde, polonium-210, benzo[a]pyrene, N-nitrosamines, acrolein, arsenic, cadmium, 1,3-butadiene, ethylene oxide, chromium VI, nickel, vinyl chloride, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs), which can cause mutations in the DNA of cells, leading to uncontrolled cell growth and cancerous mutations.
Asbestos: A Toxin with a Similar Sordid History
Asbestos’ Growing Popularity Over the Years
While on the surface it may not seem like asbestos and smoking have a whole lot in common, the stories behind the toxins parallel each other in many ways.
A naturally occurring mineral composed of thin, fibrous crystals, asbestos was once hailed as a “miracle mineral” for its durability, strength, and heat-resistant properties. Its use dates back thousands of years to ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, who utilized asbestos in their artwork, infrastructure, and tapestries.
The expansion of industry marked a significant increase in asbestos use, with Britain being one of the first places to adopt it extensively. Turner & Newall, a major British manufacturing company originally established in 1871, played a key role in popularizing use, after which word of asbestos’ unique and powerful properties spread quickly, making it a worldwide sensation.
The expansion of asbestos into workplaces and homes.
In North America, Canada was a large contributor to the asbestos industry, particularly through its expansive mining operations in Quebec. The most notable was the Jeffrey Mine, located in the town of Asbestos (now renamed Val-des-Sources), which, along with the nearby Thetford Mines, made Quebec a central hub for asbestos production.
Johns Manville, founded in 1858, became a large producer of insulation, roofing materials, and engineered products during the Industrial Revolution in the U.S., manufacturing the majority of its products with asbestos-containing materials (ACMs). The U.S., in general, relied heavily on asbestos across various industries during this time, especially in the shipbuilding, construction, manufacturing, textile, and automotive sectors. Asbestos also regularly made its way into residential homes, commonly found in everything from floor and ceiling titles, insulation, and roofing shingles as well as kitchenware and appliances, arts and crafts, beauty products, and many other household items.
Soon, this “miracle mineral” was literally everywhere – a staple in many industries and prevalent in numerous geographic locations around the world.
Asbestos-Related Health Complications
Despite its one-time popularity, asbestos now has a well-documented history of causing severe health issues. The mineral’s fibrous nature allows its tiny particles to easily become airborne, where they can be inhaled by anyone nearby, lodging themselves in internal tissues where they reside permanently until inflammation leads to life-threatening illnesses.
Asbestos Recently Banned
After years of succumbing to industry pushback, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was finally successful in restricting asbestos use in the late 1980s, yet much of the damage had already been done.
Not only did restricting, rather than eliminating, its use mean that asbestos could still be incorporated into certain products, but by this time, the legacy of an asbestos-ladened past would remain for a long time to come in many residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. Still today, the mineral is incorporated into auto parts, cement, and construction materials, and it continues to enter the U.S. through imports from countries without these restrictions.
Asbestos exposure has been linked to asbestosis, asthma, COPD, emphysema, and pleural plaques as well as many forms of cancer, including especially aggressive ones like lung cancer and mesothelioma. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 125 million people globally are still exposed to asbestos in the workplace, and about half of all occupational cancers are attributable to asbestos exposure.
Asbestos & Lung Cancer: Especially Concerning Stats
Lung cancer remains one of the deadliest forms of cancer worldwide, carrying a low life expectancy and resulting in many fatalities each year. According to the ACS, lung cancer is the second-most commonly diagnosed cancer in both men and women, accounting for nearly 25% of all cancer deaths. It brings a five-year survival rate of just 20.5%.
While asbestos exposure has long been connected to mesothelioma, the number of asbestos-related lung cancer cases is actually substantially higher. Studies have shown that individuals exposed to asbestos are 5-7 times more likely to develop lung cancer compared to the general population, and the mineral accounts for the majority of occupational lung cancer cases.
The 1970s and 1980s brought the highest rates of both smoking and asbestos exposure despite regulatory efforts and public health warnings. Given the simultaneous popularity of smoking and asbestos use, and the high rates of cancer diagnoses associated with both, it’s perhaps not all that surprising that smokers exposed to asbestos are more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer. What might be shocking about this correlation, though, is the fact that asbestos-exposed smokers have a 90 times higher chance of being diagnosed with lung cancer than unexposed nonsmokers!
While both the popularity of smoking and the widespread use of asbestos during the ‘70s and ‘80s left smokers during these years at especially high risk, the threat persists even today as those who smoke continue to live in asbestos-laden homes and work in structures where it still resides.
Cancers Caused by Smoking Have Hit a Record High
According to new analysis by Cancer Research U.K., smoking-related cancer diagnoses have reached an all-time high. The charity reported that nearly 160 people are diagnosed with cancer every day due to smoking, while highlighting that smoking-induced cancer cases reached 57,555 in 2023, a 17% increase from data collected in 2003.
While lung cancer remains a top concern, the data also includes a significant uptick in liver, throat, and kidney cancers, which have doubled over the past two decades, and cites that tobacco use is known to cause as many as 16 types of cancer. Even with smoking rates in the U.K., as well as in other areas of the world, declining thanks to widespread public awareness efforts, as of 2024, there are still an estimated 1.3 billion smokers worldwide. Thus, tobacco use remains a global threat, especially in low- and middle-income countries where approximately 80% of smokers live.
Could Asbestos Exposure be Contributing to the Uptick in Smoking-induced Cancers?
It’s now common knowledge that asbestos exposure, when combined with smoking, significantly increases the risk of lung cancer. But could it also be a contributing factor in the uptick of other smoking-related cancers? After all, asbestos is a carcinogen that has itself been linked to a variety of cancers, including mesothelioma, ovarian, kidney, livers, larynx, stomach, and many others. What’s more, the synergetic effects of both have been well-documented and were especially high during the ‘70s and ‘80s, and the public continues to be exposed to both today. There are also eerie similarities between the latent effects of exposure to both asbestos and smoking and the onset of life-threatening diseases.
While still just mostly speculation, many experts believe that asbestos might indeed be a culprit in the overwhelming number of cancer cases among smokers in recent years. This speculation is both rooted in the prevalence of lung cancer in asbestos-exposed smokers as well as research that expands this perception to other forms of cancer.
For example, a study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found that asbestos exposure in smokers results in a risk of lung cancer that is approximately 50 times greater than the risk posed by either factor alone, and another comprehensive review published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health highlights that the combination not only increases the incidence of lung cancer but also affects other cancers, including cancers of the larynx and esophagus.
Thus, while research into asbestos’ contribution specifically smoking-related cancer cases is still evolving, there already exists some proof that exposure to both toxins increases cancer rates, in general.
Given the high risk of cancer cases among smokers as well as those exposed to asbestos, early diagnosis and treatment are crucial. Smokers, in particular, should undergo regular screenings for cancer, including chest X-rays and low-dose CT scans, which can help detect the presence of cancer at an earlier, more treatable stage.
Asbestos exposure, like smoking, can cause scarring in the lungs, detectable through chest X-rays.
B readers, operated by trained radiologists, can also identify abnormalities and other signs of lung distress. Early detection of asbestos-related cancer is critical as treatments tend to be limited in later stages and prognoses can be much poorer.
Screening is especially crucial in either case because the link between both smoking and asbestos exposure and subsequent diseases can include long symptom latency periods. In other words, individuals exposed to asbestos may not develop symptoms until many years later. Similarly, former smokers who long ago gave up the habit can still develop smoking-induced cancers and other diseases, noticing symptoms even after a number of years have passed. Screening, however, allows for early detection, often before symptoms are evident.
Legal Compensation and Financial Assistance for Asbestos-Exposed Smokers Diagnosed with Cancer
The high medical costs of cancer treatment, coupled with the potential for forced retirement and lost wages, can place a significant burden on those diagnosed with cancer. What’s more, treatment may include travel-related expenses and providing funds for care coordination, especially when support systems and specialists are not nearby. Being diagnosed with cancer is almost always unexpected and having to account for financial and logistical concerns out of the blue can be especially difficult, placing added stress on patients during an already trying time.
Even lifelong smokers can qualify for money for the medical and incidental costs of asbestos-related diseases like lung cancer.
It’s important for smokers to understand that they are eligible for legal compensation and financial incentives to help pay for these unexpected costs just the same as nonsmokers are. Just because they smoke, or continue to smoke, doesn’t mean they’re excluded from resources.
Many companies in the asbestos industry went bankrupt long ago amid mounting litigation charging them with negligence, and, as part of these bankruptcy proceedings, established trust funds to proactively address future legal woes. There are still billions of dollars up for grabs, and filing a claim is a relatively quick and easy process. An experienced asbestos attorney can help claimants while working on a contingency basis, meaning they won’t require any upfront fees.
Liability by manufacturers and sellers for asbestos-related cancer (even if you were a smoker)
Lawsuits are also still an option for victims of negligent parties that exposed them to asbestos as well as those who wish to pursue compensation from tobacco companies. However, it’s important to carefully weigh the costs and benefits of going this route. Lawsuits, while generally yielding higher payouts (if successful), tend to take much longer to decide, and for many patients diagnosed with cancer, time is not a plentiful resource. An attorney well-versed in this type of litigation can help their clients determine the best options for each situation after carefully reviewing the facts of a case.
Depending on a person’s particular circumstances, other options to offset costs may include veterans’ benefits, workers’ compensation claims, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), state-specific compensation programs, and medical expense reimbursement programs. These options can supplement legal payouts or be pursued exclusively.
Asbestos’ Role in Smoking-related Cancers: An Ongoing Debate
Asbestos exposure and smoking are both toxic substances that compromise health, significantly increasing the risk of many forms of cancers, and it’s well-known that the combination of the two can have a synergistic effect, leading to higher rates of cancer among smokers exposed to asbestos. While more research is needed, there is strong speculation that asbestos may be contributing to rising smoking-related cancer rates, not just lung cancer cases, but many others as well.
Given the probability of receiving a cancer diagnosis as a result of asbestos exposure and smoking, public health efforts must continue to educate people about the dangers of both, promote early screening and diagnosis for anyone considered high risk. These efforts should also adequately support cancer patients and their families in many ways, including legally, financially, medically, and even emotionally with the help of mental health services. While both smoking and asbestos use have declined over the years, cancer rates have yet to follow suit. Any efforts to curtail the growing number of cases will improve overall quality of life and longevity globally.