We saw a news item today across a couple of different media sources, including The Australian, telling us that lung cancer cases have soared by 72% among women.
This is a disease with survival rates of only 11% of men alive five years following diagnosis, and 15% for women. Very ordinary odds. And this disease is so tightly associated with the lifestyle choice of smoking cigarettes.
The report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare looked at rates of the disease between 1982 and 2007.
The strong conclusion drawn by experts is that we women have ‘caught up with’ men. That is, because smoking for ladies was not the done thing until the 60’s and 70’s, and lung cancer taking a few decades to lead to a slow and painful death, women are now dying from lung cancer in almost equal numbers as men.
Not a desirable outcome for gender equality in this case.
A total of 4715 men and 2911 women died from lung cancer in 2007, making the disease the leading cause of cancer deaths for both sexes.
And according to Cancer Council’s chief executive, Professor Ian Olver, with 14 to 17 year old girls out smoking their male peers, he feels more needed to be done to “de-glamourise” smoking.
So now we have more young women smoking than guys?
Seriously girls, we’re supposed to be the smarter sex. Time to demonstrate some common sense and stop killing yourself.
