Smoke signals

Everyone knows about a smoker’s cough and the danger of lung cancer, but Sir John wants to get across to smokers the sinister effects of breathing in tobacco smoke.

As a geneticist, Sir John has particular concerns about the cumulative effect of smoking on the body’s ability to repair damage.

For instance, do smokers know how chemicals in tobacco smoke can gradually interfere in the way the body repairs damage to cells?

“There are a lot of chemicals in tobacco smoke which essentially attach to and damage the DNA in our body’s stem cells,” says Sir John.

“These stem cells, which continually replace themselves to line and protect our organs, such as lungs and bowel, are needed every day to replace any damaged tissue. Once DNA has been damaged, it doesn’t accurately copy itself – this is a mutation – and then permanent changes are made to the DNA in our cells which we carry throughout our lives.

“A lot of the time, we’re not aware the damage is there. Most damage is fixed by the body’s own clever repair systems, but if cells continue to be damaged by chemicals every day, DNA damage accumulates.

“These mutations can lead to cancer. If you’re a smoker, this is mostly anything which has direct contact with tobacco – lung cancer and head and neck cancers such as mouth, tongue, throat and lips. Bladder cancer is also common, as chemicals are processed in the body before being dropped into the bladder.

“If you are a smoker, you have a much increased risk of cancer for this reason. If you’ve been a smoker, but have now quit, there is some damage to stem cells which won’t go away – however, because you have quit, you have stopped any new damage from happening.

Quitting smoking is the best thing you can do for your health and it is crucial to stop for good as soon as possible.”

THE results of years of inhaling cigarette smoke are seen day in, day out by Dr Neil Munro, a consultant physician at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

Unsurprisingly, Dr Munro is an enthusiastic supporter of the hard-hitting TV adverts.

He points to the most recent statistics which show that a chilling 2,122 deaths in the region in 2010 were related to smoking.

That means in a town like Darlington, there were 77 smoking-related deaths in that year.

Dr Munro feels that more people should be aware that smoking is not just linked to lung cancer, but can cause tumours to grow in many other parts of the body.

“Every year in the North-East, thousands of people die or are diagnosed with cancer as a result of smoking. We see people who should be enjoying healthy, happy years but instead have to deal with being diagnosed with a serious disease, and its impact on family life,” he says.

“There is still a real lack of awareness about the many types of cancer caused by smoking.

Nearly everyone knows lung cancer is caused by smoking, but very few people realise smoking is linked to 15 different types of cancer.

“This is hardly surprising when you consider the range of poisons in cigarette smoke, which contains more than 70 cancer-causing chemicals. Cigarette smoke enters the bloodstream and travels around the body causing immediate and long-term damage. This increases the risk of cancer in over a dozen parts of the body, as well as a range of other conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke and heart disease.

“It is vitally important we continue to explain to smokers the risks they are taking for the sake of themselves and their family.”

Ailsa Rutter, director of Fresh, the North- East tobacco control agency, is also hoping that the latest TV ads will have an impact.

“Too many cherished mums, dads and grandparents die before their time every year as a result of smoking related cancers, leaving loved ones behind,” she says.

“Often people who have smoked all their lives and get cancer as a result feel anger they didn’t quit sooner, but the cruel fact is that most smokers start as children and are addicted by the time they reach 18. We need to recognise that smoking is an addiction promoted by an industry with no regard for people’s health, only its profits.”

Fresh points out that smoking causes more than four in five cases of lung cancer, which has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers and is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK. The good news is that most of these deaths are preventable, by quitting in time.

Smoking also increases the risk of more than a dozen other cancers including cancers of the mouth, larynx (voice box), pharynx (upper throat), nose and sinuses, oesophagus (food pipe), liver, pancreas, stomach, kidney, bladder, cervix and bowel, as well as one type of ovarian cancer and some types of leukaemia. There is also some evidence that smoking could increase the risk of breast cancer.

Fresh points out that it is never too late to quit smoking. After five years, the risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, oesophagus, and bladder are cut in half while cervical cancer risk falls to that of a non-smoker. After ten years smokefree, a former smoker’s risk of lung cancer falls to about half that of a smoker.

The Department of Health’s national advertising campaign was developed after research showed more than a third of smokers still think the health risks associated with smoking are greatly exaggerated.

It is also designed to send a tough message to smokers about the dangers of smoking, especially to younger generations who may not have seen such a hard-hitting message about smoking before.