People often tell me we should not fund #lungcancerscreening because its just for #smokers and they do this to themselves... No surprise for anyone associated with #lungcancer who know all too well bias and #stigma faced by those who suffer from it. This is what I tell them...
While smoking remains an individual action, the majority of smokers are hooked at a young age, often before age 18 (in Alberta, the avg age is 16). As one of the most addictive substances around, the argument that smoking is a simple informed choice made by adults is not valid.
Society must share the responsibility for their addiction & consequence from a legal product heavily marketed to population and easily accessed by youth despite regulations.
We all draw (through our governments) substantial revenue even today (1 billion $/year in AB, pop 4 million).Smokers and by extension lung cancer predominantly affects individuals of lower income & education status (as well as immigrants, racial minorities and First Nations)...
...If at least some of this taxation is not redirected towards helping these individuals (through quitting support and screening), this becomes a very regressive taxation method for general government revenues.
>50% of new lung cancers diagnosed today are in ex-smokers or never-smokers. These ex-smokers have managed to quit one of the most addictive substances around, and have only one way to reduce their risk of dying from lung cancer: #screening. How ethical is it to withhold this?
Currently screening not feasible in never-smokers as the individual risk is too low, but over time will learn to identify non-smokers at particularly high risk in order to screen them, or develop cheaper/easier methods to screen which would perform well in low-risk populations.
Screening programs can incorporate #smokingcessation support for those who still smoke and serve as an educational moment to promote cessation, with approximately 15% of these recalcitrant smokers quitting as part of mere participation in a screening program.
Large number of common health conditions at least in part impacted by individual behaviors, be it smoking, alcohol, drug use, poor diet/obesity/inactivity. Not a reason to shun effective interventions, in particular for such a devastating disease as #lungcancer #1cancerkiller.
Never-smokers would likely also benefit from a reduction in death and suffering from our deadliest cancer prematurely taking from them their parents, grand-parents, sisters, brothers, spouses, children and other loved ones.
Let's use #LungCancerAwarenessMonth to advocate for #lungcancerscreening in our respective jurisdiction. End the stigma & start screening!!!
@threadreaderapp unroll
