How Does Smoking Cause Leukemia?

Video Transcript

"Hello, I am Dr. David Burns, I'm a professor emeritus at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. Smoking also causes a cancer of the blood called leukemia. There are some 60 different cancer causing substances in cigarette smoke including benzine which is a well recognized cause of leukemia. So one of the significant consequences of smoking is a cancer of the blood called leukemia. This is a less common cause of smoking related disease and there's a variety of research that's currently being done to investigate why cigarette smoking causes leukemia. A good summary of that research and of the epidemiological studies that have demonstrated the increased risk of leukemia is found in the US surgeon general's reports which are available on the web and there are two that are particularly useful for this. One is the report in 2004 and one is the report that will probably come out this year in 2009."