MSM’s Dr. Eric Flenaugh says research suggests the demographic may be more susceptible to negative effects of smoking than their counterparts. By Chauncey Alcorn, Capital B Atlanta
The popularity of hookah lounges, cigar bars, and recreational marijuana may be contributing to higher rates of lung cancer among Black men living in Fulton County, according to recent research outlined by the county’s Board of Health.
Panelists at the Fulton County Board of Health’s “State of Healthcare for African Americans” town hall on Monday, February 10, said that a higher rate of lung cancer exists among Black men in the region, despite smoking rates often being equal to or lower than that of other racial groups.
“There’s something about African Americans that [is] making them more susceptible to the bad effects of tobacco smoke,” Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority board trustee Alicia M. Ivey told attendees at the event, which took place at Fulton’s South Services Center in College Park.
Dr. Eric L. Flenaugh, a pulmonary medicine expert with Morehouse School of Medicine and Grady Memorial Hospital, cited research indicating the rate of lung cancer among African American men in Fulton County (74 per 100,000) is about 10 points higher than it is for white men (64 per 100,000), even though both demographics smoke at roughly the same rates (23% versus 25%, respectively).
Flenaugh says Native American men who live in the county smoke at much higher rates (44%) than Black men but are less likely to get lung cancer.
“It’s not just race when we talk about health disparities,” Flenaugh said. “It’s an imbalance between people’s health and what they know about their health and what they do with their health and the health care that’s available to them or what they seek out.”
The city of Atlanta banned smoking at most public venues in 2020 to help curb growing local respiratory health disparities. But it’s allowed in establishments that promote smoking as a form of entertainment, such as hookah lounges and cigar bars, which have become more ubiquitous in Fulton County in recent years.
The Atlanta metro area had the 67th worst level of ozone pollution in the […]
Hookah, Cigarillos May Be Raising Lung Cancer Rates for Fulton’s Black Men
