Via twitter - and an interesting point:
https://twitter.com/CarinaAlm/status/1630285897781452800?s=20
Myths About Smoking, Diet, Alcohol, and Cancer Persist [*see note below]
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/988720
"France ― Conducted every 5 years since 2005, the Cancer Survey documents the knowledge, perceptions, and way of life of the French people in relation to cancer. The French National Cancer Institute (InCA), in partnership with Public Health France (SPF), has published the results of its 2021 survey. The researchers analyzed responses to telephone interviews of a representative sample of almost 5000 individuals aged 15 to 85 years. ..." Free to register
Regards
Peter Jones
Community Mental Health Nurse, Tutor & Researcher
Warrington Recovery Team, NW England, UK
Blogging at "Welcome to the QUAD"
http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/h2cm
HIFA profile: Peter Jones is a Community Mental Health Nurse with the NHS in NW England and a a part-time tutor at Bolton University. Peter champions a conceptual framework - Hodges' model - that can be used to facilitate personal and group reflection and holistic / integrated care. A bibliography is provided at the blog 'Welcome to the QUAD' (http://hodges-model.blogspot.com). h2cmuk@yahoo.co.uk
[*Note from HIFA moderator (NPW): Thanks Peter. Below are extracts from the Medscape article. I can see a problem in this report: it suggests the 'danger threshold' for smoking and cancer is '9.2 cigarettes per day'. This is open to misinterpretation by health professionals and the public, who might consider that lower consumption is not harmful. If indeed this statement about relation with cancer is tenable, the statement should be qualified with the point that Eduardo Bianco (Uruguay made on HIFA this morning: "cardiovascular damage is observed with very few daily cigarettes"
Myths About Smoking, Diet, Alcohol, and Cancer Persist
February 24, 2023
France ― Conducted every 5 years since 2005, the Cancer Survey documents the knowledge, perceptions, and way of life of the French people in relation to cancer. The French National Cancer Institute (InCA), in partnership with Public Health France (SPF), has published the results of its 2021 survey. The researchers analyzed responses to telephone interviews of a representative sample of almost 5000 individuals aged 15 to 85 years.
This study shows how thinking has changed over time and how difficult it is to alter preconceived notions.
About 41% of smokers think that the length of time one has been smoking is the biggest determining factor for developing cancer; 58.1% think the number of cigarettes smoked per day has a bigger impact...
Experts at InCA and SPF put the debate to rest, stating that prolonged exposure to carcinogenic substances is far more toxic. As for the danger threshold concerning the number of cigarettes smoked per day, respondents believed this to be 9.2 cigarettes per day, on average. They believed that the danger threshold for the number of years as an active smoker is 13.4, on average.
"The [survey] respondents clearly understand that smoking carries a risk, but many smokers think that light smoking or smoking for a short period of time doesn't carry any risks." Yet it is understood that even occasional tobacco consumption increases mortality...
About 34% of survey respondents agreed with the following statement: "Smoking doesn't cause cancer unless you're a heavy smoker and have smoked for a long time." Furthermore, 43.3% agreed with the statement, "Pollution is more likely to cause cancer than smoking," 54.6% think that "exercising cleans your lungs of tobacco"...]
