My aunt Erin quit smoking 35 years ago, when she was in her early forties.
She had smoked quite a lot for more than 20 years, but decided for some reason that enough was enough. She was an ex-smoker now, and still healthy. Or so she thought.
Because an ex-smoker is not the same as a non-smoker: on a cellular level, many things can go wrong due to decades of smoking, and the overall impact can remain hidden for a very long time.
Remember that even one single instance of getting sunburned as a child can lead to skin cancer 50 years later; smoking has a similar effect in many cancers (although usually some pack-years are required — not one single cigarette).
In December 2024, my aunt Erin developed a persistent cough which wouldn’t go away. In a matter weeks, her voice grew very hoarse before it was completely gone. A subsequent visit to an ENT (Ears, Nose and Throat doctor) revealed — after a number of medical examinations, including MRIs and the like — that she had stage IV lung cancer, with metastasis to the bones.
She perished within three weeks after the diagnosis.
This is not an isolated case, by the way: many people with a history of smoking end up with cancer many years later — also when they quit years ago. Smoking is the leading cause of cancer (not just lung cancer), and in the US (example given) 20% of all cancers and 30% of all cancer deaths are due to smoking.
To add insult to injury, 80% of all lung cancer deaths are entirely caused by smoking.
And this is just a glimpse of the cancerous side of the story: if you ever knew a person with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), you understand that cancer is just one of the levels in the Game of Groans.
In more then one sense, smoking is the exact opposite of breathing —
Ask my aunt Erin, if you will.
SOURCES: the footnoted site. For the image: A case of the intrapulmonary spread of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis with malignant transformation, American Journal of Medical Sciences 350 (2015), 55–57. (Attribution: NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International)