Lung cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, and for those who get it, it is a terrible way to die.

Most people think that lung cancer is something that is reserved for people who have smoked throughout their lives, or those who are constantly near secondhand smoke. While the majority of people who get lung cancer are indeed smokers, that statistic has been shifting in recent years.

According to a report by The Canadian Press, almost 25% of lung cancer patients in Canada today are nonsmokers. Technically speaking, there are two reasons for this, one of them being extremely concerning.

First, the good news is that the number of smokers getting lung cancer has been dropping for decades, because the number of smokers is going down. Just a generation or two ago, smoking was extremely common, but thanks to some very effective anti-smoking campaigns, fewer people than ever are taking up the bad habit.

Unfortunately, on the other side of the coin is the fact that more and more nonsmokers are getting the terrible disease. To make matters worse, nonsmokers generally aren’t screened for lung cancer as early or often, so when they do get it, the doctors don’t catch it as early. This means that there are far fewer treatment options, often leading to their deaths.

Dr. Rosalyn Juergens is a medical oncologist at McMaster University, and in the Canadian Press report, she said:

“More women will die of lung cancer than will die of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and cervical cancer combined. One in five of them will be people who have never touched a cigarette a day in their lives.”

For many people, that statistic will be very surprising. While those other types of cancer are things that everyone is aware of and watches out for, most nonsmokers don’t give much thought to the threat of lung cancer. This is something that clearly needs to change.

So, what is causing the dramatic uptick in cases of lung cancer for nonsmokers?

More study is certainly needed on this, but there are some very strong theories that present likely causes. First, in Canada, one report suggests that radon exposure is a leading cause. Radon is an invisible gas that comes from the soil. The report says that as the permafrost in the ground melts due to rising temperatures, more radon is being released into unsuspecting people’s homes.

Sadly, if this is accurate, the problem will disproportionately hit the poor because it can be expensive to test for radon and even more expensive to mitigate it once it is found.

Other potential causes include general air pollution, which is very common in large cities, and prolonged exposure to smoke that comes from the growing number of wildfires.

Simply put, while people have been improving the quality of air in their lungs by cutting back on smoking, the environment as a whole has been getting much more toxic. This is just one more reason why people everywhere need to take being environmentally friendly more seriously, so that this terrifying trend can be reversed.

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