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May 12, 2006

A for Air? C for Cancer? F for Fatal?

Chances are, you know someone who's died of lung cancer.

My grandfather smoked for most of his life. By the time he quit, it was already too late. He died of lung cancer and complications about 17 years ago. He never got to meet all his grandchildren. My brothers and younger cousins have no memory of him, which is a real shame. He was a grumpy old guy who loved playing cribbage and fish for trout.

He loved babies. He'd call my grandmother in from the kitchen if the Michelin baby commercial was on the TV, because it was so adorable. I was old enough, a teenager, when he died and it made an impression on me that no No-Smoking campaign could have done better.

Still, smoking isn't the only way people develop lung cancer. Nowadays, pollution can do you in just as easily. You hear stories of people like Dana Reeves, philanthrophist and wife of the late Christopher Reeves, who recently passed away at the young age of 44 from lung cancer, having never smoked in her life.

The American Lung Association recently published their State of the Air Report for 2006, which provides an air quality report card. They've made it nice and easy to look up your home area by zipcode, or navigate using a map. For example, my town of Santa Cruz, CA gets an A while nearby Santa Clara, where my husband works in the Silicon Valley, gets an F for ozone and particle pollution.

Posted by sorsha at May 12, 2006 1:47 PM