Lung Cancer and the Power of Suggestion

Re:Lung Cancer and the Power of Suggestion by PeterisP on Sunday February 10, 2013 @11:09AM (#5196753)

The first article graph of woman lung cancer rates raises some red flags - a huge increase in woman lung cancer caused by cigarettes would be expected a couple of decades after the huge increase in woman (as opposed to mostly-male) smoking in first half of 20th century.

In order for that graph to facilitate truth instead of misleading, it needs to include either (a) woman smoking rates by year, or (b) male lung cancer rates, not woman.

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Re:Lung Cancer and the Power of Suggestion by rmc on Sunday February 10, 2013 @01:01PM (#5197153)

Good point. If at some point the median man smoked 20 cigarettes a day, and the median woman smoked 0, then lots of men will get lung cancer and women won't. If things change to 10 and 10, then the average number of cigarettes will stay the same, but the number of people who smoke at least 10 will have doubled. This is how the lung cancer rate can go up with the number of cigarettes going down.

Another way to measure it would be to look at "how much lung cancer is there per smoker".

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