Tag: smoking

Why Lung Cancer Is on the Rise in Non-Smokers

Sotirios Papathanasiou1 Comment

Still a mystery, but here is what we have found so far. While the overall rate of lung cancer has been declining, a notable trend has emerged: lung cancer in people who have never smoked is increasing. This poses a challenge to the traditional understanding of the disease, which is heavily associated with tobacco use. Research suggests that for some, lung cancer in non-smokers is a distinct disease from that in smokers, driven by different factors and presenting in a different form.

Environmental and Lifestyle Factors

A major contributing factor to lung cancer in non-smokers is exposure to environmental carcinogens.

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Tobacco has a Tremendous Impact on the Environment, Climate and our Health. How can you break free?

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

As a child of heavily smoking parents, I always hated tobacco. Unfortunately, my parents didn’t have an understanding of the impact tobacco had on their health when I was a child. Secondhand some also had an impact on my health, but can you blame someone that didn’t understand that smoke is smoke. A toxic combination of tiny particles and chemicals that will alter and break your DNA. Also, the mentality in Mediterranean and Balkan countries is still to this day different from the rest of the world. Some people still believe it is an enjoyable habit to smoke while taking a coffee or after a meal.

It took a great effort to teach my parents that smoking is not good for anyone. At the end, they saw plenty of examples among the family members that died due to this harmful habit, and they gave it up.

For most of us that have visited a beach, we have found a tremendous amount of cigarette butts in the sand. A disgusting habit that authorities must penalize because it is not only aesthetically unpleasing but is also harmful to the marine life and the food we end up eating.

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Report: Air Quality Results from my 4000 km Road Trip – I was surprised by the PM2.5 concentrations

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

In August 2021 (summer in Northern Hemisphere), I travelled from Spain to Greece in order to visit my parents as I hadn’t see them for a long time due to the pandemic. I visited 10 countries and I evaluated the air quality with a portable air quality monitor (Atmotube PRO) but as well as the behavior of the people in these countries as they tend to have different customs when it comes to cooking or transporting around the cities.

This evaluation is very narrow because of the fact that I didn’t stay longer than a day or two in each city so take it with a pinch of salt. Also, the climatological conditions were entangled to the summer month of August and high temperatures were expected in the Mediterranean coastline. Wildfires are more likely to occur during the dry month of August and indeed I witnessed a few in the Balkans.

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