World Lung Cancer Day was August 1. World Lung Cancer Day has been set aside to “celebrate, commemorate, and support” those affected by the wrathful arms of lung cancer. It’s a very important day for so many of our community and the community of the world.

Many people don’t know how powerful lung cancer really is or how widespread it is. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer based deaths. You heard me correctly. There are more deaths from lung cancer than colon, breast, prostate cancer combined, with 160,000 American lung cancer deaths estimated for this year. Two out of three diagnosed with lung cancer are 65 or older. Though people 45 and younger only account for roughly 2% of those diagnosed. Men has a 1 in 13 chance of developing lung cancer whilst women are of 1 in 16 odds.

With smoking obviously leading the lung cancer causes chart, a surprisingly large amount of diagnoses are of non-smoking related causes. 14% of all people who have been diagnosed with lung cancer haven’t smoked a bit. Other causes the have lead these people to such a dreadful illness range from carcinogens found in their workplace, the environment, or in air pollution to many other causes.