ILLUSTRATES Tiago Lacerda
EDITION Felipe van Deursen
– (Tiago Lacerda/)
GET THIS SMOKE OUT OF HERE
Smoking is linked to most cases of lung cancer, but there are other factors that cause it. The most common of these is the passive smoking condition. Those who are close to cigarette smoke are 30% more likely to develop the disease. But thanks to indoor smoking laws, the situation is improving: over the past eight years, the number of smokers liabilities fell 42% in Brazil
FAMILY CASE
Some people have genes with specific mutations that predispose them to cancer. Brazil leads the list of cases. One in every 330 people born in the South and Southeast carries a mutation related to Li Fraumeni syndrome, which causes multiple tumors in the same person. In the US, for example, the syndrome affects one in every 5,000 people.
THE BAD GAS
Radon gas is natural, colorless, odorless – and carcinogenic. Product of the disintegration of two chemical elements (uranium and thorium) in soil and rocks, it is difficult to be noticed. In Caetite (BA), the rate of people with the disease is 19 times higher than in the rest of the state. No gave another. Studies have shown that radon is higher there
POLLUTION
Since 2013, the World Health Organization considers environmental pollution a carcinogenic substance. Countries like Mongolia, Pakistan, China, South Africa and Nigeria have high levels of air pollution and therefore lung cancer. Those who live in more contaminated areas are 20% more likely to develop the disease
CONSULTANCY Carolina Kawamura Haddad, clinical oncologist at the Antônio Ermírio de Moraes Oncology Center (São Paulo)
SOURCE World Health Organization (WHO)