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Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking

nbcnews.com

121–130 of 161 posts

Re: Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking

#121

I am sure this inevitably is going to blame Asian cooking, but one important factor here is that the women surveyed were 40-70 year old. It is important, because a huge portion of these women would be first generation immigrants. That is important to know because first generation immigrants from decades ago are more likely to have a lower socioeconomic living conditions. Life in Asia with higher pollution and lower s…

It’s still strange. It’s not like Asian women in America are cooking on wood fire stoves.

[deleted]

Re: Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking

#122
post #86
post #5

Wasn't there something about some seed oil fumes being toxic? Maybe it's related to some cooking practices. Highly speculative but the cooking oil toxicity is well-known. [edit] found this with a quick search, seems relevant: Exposure to Cooking Oil Fumes and Oxidative Damages: A Longitudinal Study in Chinese Military Cooks https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4029104/ [edit 2] and indeed the article mentions…

It probably also doesn’t help that some cooking techniques, like wok hei, involve heating the oil past its burning point.

Many stir fry recipes involve heating oil until smoking.

Re: Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking

#123

I am sure this inevitably is going to blame Asian cooking, but one important factor here is that the women surveyed were 40-70 year old. It is important, because a huge portion of these women would be first generation immigrants. That is important to know because first generation immigrants from decades ago are more likely to have a lower socioeconomic living conditions. Life in Asia with higher pollution and lower s…

It’s still strange. It’s not like Asian women in America are cooking on wood fire stoves.

Cooking on a gas stove without proper ventilation is terrible for you. My stove didn't have a hood when I moved in, inspection didn't even call it out to fix. But I started getting dizzy and feeling sick in my house; and had to install air sensors before I realized it was cooking that was absolutely destroying my air quality. Like from 2ppm to 1000ppm down the hall in the office.

The whole "they're coming to steal your stoves" thing started for a reason, without proper ventilation to the outside (which just isn't that common in the US), cooking can destroy your lungs, even today.

Re: Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking

#124
post #66
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is saying that 53.4% of the non smoking women that developed cancer in the study were Asian. It is a dumb stat to chart without contextualizing that Asians were 15.92% of the entire study population. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530225/table/T...

My interpretation of the underlying study is that 53.4% of the asian women who developed cancer in the study were nonsmokers, which I believe is subtly different from what you said. But I think what NBC wrote on the graph is pretty unambiguous, that 53.4% of nonsmoking asian women in the study developed cancer. They titled the graph "Lung cancer among nonsmokers, by race" when it should really be "Nonsmoking among Lu…

Well your interpretation is not correct as you can validate because I posted the source table for you.

53.4% is the share of non smoking women who got lung cancer in the study that were Asian.

Re: Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wok hei isn't a home cook technique

It can be, but you have to mod your stove, and you're supposed to move it outside first.

You can also buy an outdoor wok burner, but home cooks are generally not getting much wok hei.

Re: Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking

#126

My wife is Thai, we now live in Australia. Back in Thailand she and her mother often used coal for cooking (which is listed in the article as a possible cause) but after moving to Australia, she no longer used it because it is impractical (the coal is hard to find, the type of stove used for cooking with coal is not readily available, neighbours would complain about the smoke, etc etc). I imagine that most other Asia…

I think the difference in cooking oil is in how the oil is used. What I hear abour Chinese households in US is that their kitchens tend to become more greasy, because their cooking style tends to produce more oil fumes, and fume extractors tend to be less common in US than in their home countries.

Re: Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking

#127
> Over 50% of Asian American women who have lung cancer have never smoked

Is this really that surprising, considering that only 2.6%[1] of Asian American women smoke? If 0% of Asian American women smoked, then 100% of the lung cancer cases would come from non-smokers. As it is, the group with the lowest percentage of smokers should have the highest percentage of lung cancer cases in non-smokers.

The article gives no absolute rates to compare, and I can't easily find the article they quote for the rising rates of lung cancer in Asian American women. Given the poor interpretation of the subheading, I wouldn't be surprised if it was entirely explained by aging, or was a reversion to the mean from a very low baseline.

[1] From another comment on this article: https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/smoking-facts/impact-of-to...

Re: Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a similar theory about car accidents. I get in one every couple of years because I think that I'll be able react more quickly to them if I'd never experienced it at all. :-). Slightly more seriously, I hope your cigarette plan works out for you.

Exactly, or like allowing your kid occasional exposure to allergens hoping it will help them avoid allergies and asthma later on. In reality of course, no amount of cleanliness could possibly be too clean.

Except that exposing infants to food allergens has been shown lower the prevalence of food allergies.

Solid Food Introduction and the Development of Food Allergies https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30453619/ Early consumption of peanuts in infancy is associated with a low prevalence of peanut allergy https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19000582/ What if it is the other way around? Early introduction of peanut and fish seems to be better than avoidance https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19432829/

Re: Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking

#129

My wife is Thai, we now live in Australia. Back in Thailand she and her mother often used coal for cooking (which is listed in the article as a possible cause) but after moving to Australia, she no longer used it because it is impractical (the coal is hard to find, the type of stove used for cooking with coal is not readily available, neighbours would complain about the smoke, etc etc). I imagine that most other Asia…

I think the difference in cooking oil is in how the oil is used. What I hear abour Chinese households in US is that their kitchens tend to become more greasy, because their cooking style tends to produce more oil fumes, and fume extractors tend to be less common in US than in their home countries.

The fume extractors in a typical American dwelling are also quite underpowered, especially in rentals. Gotta cook with wok hay.

Re: Asian American women are getting lung cancer despite never smoking

#130

> Over 50% of Asian American women who have lung cancer have never smoked Is this really that surprising, considering that only 2.6%[1] of Asian American women smoke? If 0% of Asian American women smoked, then 100% of the lung cancer cases would come from non-smokers. As it is, the group with the lowest percentage of smokers should have the highest percentage of lung cancer cases in non-smokers. The article gives no…

... or maybe passive smoking from their partners who may smoke.
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