Health Services kicks off Cancer Prevention Week

The College of Community Health Services kicked off its Cancer Prevention Week Monday with a lecture from Dr. Charles LeMaistre, a member of the 1964 surgeon general's advisory committee on smoking and health.

LeMaistre, a UA alumnus and a native of Lockhart, Ala., was the youngest member of a committee that released a report that conclusively found that smoking was a major cause of lung cancer.

Since the report's release in 1964, LeMaistre said the smoking rate has decreased from 78 percent to 20 percent. However, there are 1,444,920 new tobacco-related cancer cases reported each year.

LeMaistre said tobacco use causes 30 percent of all cancer cases, 87 percent of lung cancer cases and 89 percent of emphysema cases. He said cigarettes are more addictive than cocaine and heroin, and it only takes three to four packs or about 100 cigarettes to become addicted to smoking.

He also said smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the United States.

For some people, the warnings came too late.

"I never knew my grandfather," said Molly McPherson, a sophomore majoring in public relations. "My grandfather died of lung cancer at a young age because he didn't know smoking was harmful until it was too late."

LeMaistre said the ultimate solution to the tobacco crisis in this country is to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke, free the addicted smoker from nicotine dependence and raise a non-smoking generation.

LeMaistre said smoking rates have been holding steady at 20 percent.

Allison Leitner, director of advancement for the UA School of Medicine Tuscaloosa campus, said she finds it interesting that the vast majority of smokers today started in their teens.

McPherson said the current generation needs to fix the smoking problem.

"I wonder why people would choose to smoke when we have all this information available," McPherson said. "People should know that when they smoke they are putting their future in jeopardy."