Confirmed Causal Relationship Between Smoking and Lung and Laryngeal Cancer: "Tobacco is a Product of Death" (Comprehensive)

Jung, who was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 2003, started smoking after receiving Hwarang cigarettes during his military service. At that time, if he did not smoke at work, he was ostracized, and cigarettes were smoked so heavily in the office that it was filled with smoke. Jung said, "I learned to smoke in the military and became addicted, so I cannot help but resent the state," adding, "I did not think smoking was harmful to my body."

An in-depth investigation of 30 patients diagnosed with lung and laryngeal cancer who had smoked for more than 30 years revealed an analysis showing a causal relationship between smoking and cancer onset. Kang-sook Lee, president of the Korea Anti-Smoking Movement Association (professor of preventive medicine at the Catholic University Medical School), presented the results of an in-depth follow-up investigation on the smoking habits of lung and laryngeal cancer patients at the "2023 Tobacco Litigation Seminar" held by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) at the Seoul Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the 31st. The research team conducted in-depth interviews with 30 tobacco litigation subjects from April 28 last year to January 30 this year. The age at which smoking started was 20s for 15 people, teens for 14 people, and 30s for 1 person. Nine had a family history, and none were exposed to harmful substances due to their occupation. The motivation for attempting to quit smoking was cancer surgery in 57% of cases. The reason quitting was difficult was answered as addiction withdrawal symptoms by 63%.

President Lee said, "By deeply analyzing the period of exposure to risk factors for individuals belonging to the group, the degree of exposure, the time of onset, health status before exposure to risk factors, lifestyle, and changes in disease status, we confirmed that there is a causal relationship between smoking and cancer."

Professor Kwan-wook Kim of the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duksung Women's University, who participated in the study, raised questions about whether past smokers started and continued smoking entirely by their own autonomous choice. According to Kim’s presentation on "Sociocultural Factors Influencing Smoking," 5 out of 30 started smoking with 'Hwarang' cigarettes in the military. The subjects started smoking on average in 1963. Although warning labels first appeared on cigarette packs in 1976, almost none of the subjects remembered the warnings. At that time, there was a lack of social information about the harmfulness and addictiveness of cigarettes. Professor Kim said, "The subjects have continued smoking for more than 30 years under the influence of factors that cannot be considered entirely voluntary without sufficient information provided about the harmfulness and addictiveness of cigarettes," and questioned, "Who should be held responsible for their cancer onset?"

The NHIS conducted this in-depth investigation to prove the "likelihood that individual smoking caused the disease," which was pointed out by the court that ruled against the tobacco litigation in the first trial in November 2020. In 2014, the NHIS filed a lawsuit demanding that tobacco companies (KT&G, Philip Morris, BAT Korea) compensate 53.3 billion won paid by the NHIS for 3,465 cancer patients, claiming that smoking caused cancer. However, after six years of legal battles, the first trial court ruled in favor of the tobacco companies. The NHIS appealed, and the second trial is currently underway.

Jung Ki-seok, director of the National Health Insurance Service, pointed out, "The related medical expenses, which were 1.7 trillion won at the time of filing the lawsuit, have more than doubled to 3.5 trillion won in 2021," adding, "The damage caused by smoking continues to grow." Director Jung said, "When teaching medical students, I included cancers caused by smoking such as lung cancer and pancreatic cancer in exams," adding, "It is so fundamental that if they get it wrong, they cannot become doctors." He continued, "We will prepare thoroughly for the second trial by establishing new legal grounds."

Seo Hong-kwan, director of the National Cancer Center, also said, "Tobacco is a deadly product that kills 8 million people worldwide every year and 62,000 people in Korea alone," adding, "KT&G earns more than 1 trillion won in net profit annually through this."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.