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Those of us who watched the heroic struggle of paralyzed Superman actor Chris Reeve have been devastated to learn that his widow Dana Reeve, who is only 44 years old, has lung cancer?even though she has never smoked. How is this possible?

This also happened to nonsmoker Alice Trillin, wife of writer Calvin Trillin, who is most famous for his memoir “Alice, Let’s Eat.” Alice Trillin grew up in a family of chain smokers and was probably exposed to a great deal of secondhand smoke as a child. However, she did not die of lung cancer; she died of a heart condition caused by radiation treatments for her cancer.
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Boston and Boulder, Colorado, share a special distinction:They lead the nation in marijuana use. Northwestern Iowa andsouthern Texas have the lowest use. The federal governmenttracks the use of drugs, cigarettes, alcohol andvarious other substances, both legal and illegal, so theycan figure out where tax dollars should be used fortreatment and prevention programs.

According to Livescience.com, a little over 5% of people inthe US report using marijuana in the previous 30 days, andmany of them live in college towns. Boulder is home to theUniversity of Colorado, while Boston is home to BostonUniversity, Boston College, Northeastern and several othercolleges. In college towns, a little over 12% of respondentsreport using marijuana in the past month.
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Newswise – Talk about BAD LUCK: some people get lung cancer who have never smoked a cigarette! Lung cancer patients who have never smoked probably have one of two genetic mutations thatare linked to the disease. Scientists hope this will helpthem understand why the same program of chemotherapy and/orradiology works for some cancer patients, but not for others.

It turns out that exposure to second hand smoke or pollutioncan induce lung cancer in people with a mutation in a geneknown as EGFR. There are people who appear not to besusceptible to lung cancer–who smoke all their lives butlive to an old age. The trouble is, not many of us have thatgenetic makeup!

Art credit: http://www.freeimages.co.uk
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Newswise – Seven years after tobacco companies signed the MasterSettlement Agreement, which prohibited them from paying fortobacco brand appearances in movies, the number of tobaccobrand appearances in movies has decreased. Buttobacco placements in movies made especially for teens haveactually INCREASED. According to psychiatrists, suicidalthoughts or attempts are associated with daily smoking incurrent smokers, but not former smokers.
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