Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists (FLASS) brings you a quick scenario to introduce this week’s topic. We will peek into three friends who are having coffee together.
Our main character, “Allyson” has been sick with coughs, lung infections and mysterious weight loss. Lately, she has needed to confide in her friends.
Allyson was ashamed to tell her two best friends, Connie and Linda about the verdict of recent doctors’ appointments with lung specialists.
She was embarrassed and bitter because she did not feel she deserved her diagnosis of Stage Three lung cancer.
She found her sympathetic friends to be supportive but just as stunned about the lung cancer report as she had been.
Connie simply said, “But I thought you only got lung cancer if you smoked.”
Linda said, “Why, Allyson, you never smoked when we were roommates in college. Were you a secret smoker?”
In addition to explaining she had the disease, Allyson found herself having to explain some hard facts in an effort to defeat the stigma of the disease.
She said, “First of all, nobody deserves lung cancer, not even smokers! It’s true I thought this was a smokers’ disease, too. My uncle literally smoked himself to death when I was young. He did three packs a day, and died at 39 years old.”
She looked balefully at her two friends, and added, “But you do not have to smoke to contract lung cancer. That is a misconception. There are other causes, and my doctor told me 20 percent of the people who get lung cancer never smoked a single cigarette.”
The Facts Behind the Scenario
Allyson, in the above story is not alone in her diagnosis. Experts estimate that 16,000 to 24,000 Americans every year contract lung cancer without smoking. “In fact, if lung cancer in non-smokers had its own separate category, it would rank among the top 10 fatal cancers in the United States.”
Let’s take a look at some of the other causes and risk factors for lung cancer in non-smokers:
1. The Wrath of Radon Gas: Experts have proven that the main cause of lung cancer in non-smokers is exposure to radon gas, according to the EPA. It is blamed for 21,000 deaths from lung cancer each year. Sometimes radon is intensely concentrated in homes built on soil that has natural uranium deposits. Since this gas can not be seen or smelled, you need to have your home 
tested. A Citizen’s Guide to Radon, published by the EPA, explains all the details.
2. The Siege of Secondhand Smoke: There is a reason that legislation has banned smoking in public places. The law saves lives. Did you know that 7,000 adults die because they lived many years in the presence of secondhand smoke?
This is why the American Cancer Society has worked so hard strengthen such laws and thus protect smokers and non-smokers from the dangers of secondhand smoke.
You might have seen the recent public service announcement which portrays a child saying she smoked two cigarettes a day when she was in first grade, on the way to school. Well, the meaning behind the moment is that she did not actually smoke them; she simply rode in the car to school while her smoking mother filled the air with carcinogens, oblivious to the harm she was inflicting on the young lungs.
3. The Contaminants At The Workplace: Some types of employment, by its very nature, invites carcinogens into the work place. It is difficult to deny the poisonous nature of asbestos and diesel exhaust. In the United States, government and industry have joined forces to reduce workers’ exposure to these chemicals.
For some people, the only recourse is to carefully limit exposure whenever it’s possible.
FLASS believes this topic is too large for one blog. We have thus far only listed three of the top five causes for lung cancer in non smokers. We will bring you two more high risk causes for lung cancer in non-smokers in our next blog, Part Two of our coverage of Lung Cancer: Also Deadly to Non-Smokers. Likewise, you will learn more about lifestyle choices you can make to mitigate your risk for this dreaded disease, and discover how Allyson fares in her personal battle.
One Special Reminder from the Doctors and Staff at Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists:
Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, we are deep into the Holiday Season. We know your life will be busy as you prepare for more holidays, with 
shopping, decorating and cooking plans in progress. It is a joyous and special time of year for all of us.
In spite of our rushed schedules, filled with programs and parties, we must find the time to do one health-giving chore:
Get your flu-shots!
Yes, although the reports are sporadic, we know the flu is on the march.
Please take a moment to get your vaccine so the flu does not deprive you of your favorite holiday activities.
Please, take your flu shots.