Women who cook on a daily basis without using a kitchen exhaust fan are nearly 1.8 times more likely to suffer from lung adenocarcinoma, a form of small-cell lung cancer, than those who do not cook, a study by the Genetic Epidemiology of Lung Cancer in Taiwan (GELAC) released yesterday showed.
The GELAC research team that conducted the study was comprised of representatives from the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI), Academia Sinica, National Taiwan University and several hospitals. They made public their findings at a two-day health forum in Taipei yesterday.
NHRI Institute of Population Sciences director Hsiung Chao (熊昭), one of the members of the team, said that nearly 90 percent of female patients with lung adenocarcinoma have never smoked, yet lung cancer has been the leading cause of cancer deaths among Taiwanese women for the past decade.
“The research team monitored the health conditions of 1,200 female lung adenocarcinoma patients and 1,200 healthy women since 2002 and found four major risk factors for lung cancer: tuberculosis, family medical history, second-hand smoke, and cooking fumes,” Hsiung said.
Hsiung said that women who have contracted tuberculosis are 2.9 times more susceptible to lung cancer, while those who have a family history of lung cancer or who have been exposed to secondhand smoke are 2.6 times and 1.5 times more likely respectively to contract the disease.
“In addition, women who have cooked three meals a day for 48 years are 1.78 times more likely to get lung cancer, but they could lower that risk by 43 percent by always having a kitchen range hood on while cooking,” Hsiung said.
National Taiwan University principal Yan Pan-chyr (楊泮池), a lung cancer expert, said that lung cancer is a multifactorial disease and that more than half of patients who develop it do not experience any symptoms in the early stages of the disease.
“Nearly 75 percent of patients with lung cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage and less than 20 percent of them live more than five years past their diagnosis,” Yang said.
Yang said that people aged 45 and older who are at high risk of developing lung cancer are advised to undergo routine low-dose computed tomography screening, which can detect lung nodules as small as 0.2cm to 0.3cm in diameter.
“Patients who have tumors that are less than 1cm wide when diagnosed typically have a 97 percent five-year survival rate, while that survival rate drops to approximately 80 percent for those with tumors ranging between 1cm and 2cm,” Yang said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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