Statistics...

...don't ya just love 'em?

Smoking 'linked to immune system and bone marrow cancers'

In the most tenuous way possible, but that doesn't bother those good folk who rely on the taxpayer to keep them in the life they've become accustomed to.

People who smoke may face an increased risk of certain cancers of the immune system and bone marrow, a study has found.

Note the typical 'study has found' language. May face an increased risk.
So let's have a look at the study then.

Scientists at the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University looked at data on 1.3 million middle-aged women who were taking part in the Million Women study.

Well at least they picked a decent sized group to study. Normally it's about thirteen people, not 1.3 million. Never the less...

A total of 9,000 women developed leukaemia, cancer of the immune system or of the bone marrow over the ten-year study period.

Almost eight in every 1,000 smokers developed one of these types of cancer, compared with just six in 1,000 non-smokers.

That's two more smokers out of every 1000 that developed leukaemia. Or 0.2% more.

The researchers also observed that women who smoked about 20 cigarettes a day faced a twofold increase in their risk of Hodgkin's lymphoma and some bone marrow cancers.

A twofold increase? Sound a lot? Well how many people get Hodgkins Lymphoma? The article omits that information but it can be found here.

The age-adjusted incidence rate was 2.8 per 100,000 men and women per year. These rates are based on cases diagnosed in 2005-2009 from 18 SEER geographic areas.

0.0028 percent of people get Hodgkins Lymphoma, so a two fold increase means 0.0056 percent.

1.3 million might be a decent sized study group but the increased risks of these cancers from smoking that they have found are so infinitesimally small they may as well be ignored.

The truth doesn't pay though.

Professor Valerie Beral, whose findings are published in the British Journal of Cancer, said: 'These results highlight yet again how important smoking is as a cause of cancer.

Talking bollocks is a little disingenuous. When folk see lies they tend to stop believing everything you say.

One day the health risks of smoking will be dismissed along with global warming and moon cheese if this keeps up.