# Thetruth.com's  lung cancer claim.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thetruth-coms-lung-cancer-claim/60304>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 31, 2001, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thetruth-coms-lung-cancer-claim/60304 "2001-03-31T22:46:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Studoggie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b487fb/32.png) [@Studoggie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Studoggie)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thetruth-coms-lung-cancer-claim/60304/1 "2001-03-31T22:46:08Z")

</div>

[Thetruth.com](http://Thetruth.com) has made tv ads claiming that black men are 50% more likely to get lung cancer than white men. This seems kinda dubious. Their website shows a study, but how reliable is it? Also, (assuming it’s true)does it necessarily mean that smoking is the cause and it is worse for black than whites?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thetruth-coms-lung-cancer-claim/60304/2 "2001-04-01T03:45:43Z")

</div>

Well, black men are 25-30% more likely to smoke than white men (statistics vary), so that would explain a big part of it. However, black women are about as likely as white women to smoke, but suffer more smoking-related health problems (I couldn’t find statistics for lung cancer specifically).

One hypothesis I saw was that the added risk comes from menthol cigarettes, which are much more popular with African-Americans (about 75%) than with whites (about 25%). Perhaps the mechanism by which it works is that it encourages deeper inhalation of the smoke. Stuides on the dangers of menthol cigarettes are contradictory.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mikahw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Mikahw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikahw)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thetruth-coms-lung-cancer-claim/60304/3 "2001-04-01T04:55:02Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> while menthol smokers form the majority among African American smokers (75%), across the wider market of the U.S. as a whole, Blacks comprise the minority of menthol cigarette smokers (25%). Significantly more non-Blacks than Blacks indulge in menthols, thus any insidious plot to harm African Americans through their minty cigarettes is going to adversely effect a far greater number of whites.

-snopes, [http://www.snopes2.com/spoons/legends/menthol.htm](http://www.snopes2.com/spoons/legends/menthol.htm)

According to that site, only 25% of menthol smokers are blacks, but 75% of Blacks that smoke use menthols (I think anyways)

Which means that Menthols are **not** more popular with African americans than whites, **unless** whites are less than 25% of the menthol smokers. Where would the other 50% be coming from then?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RyanD004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/848f3c/32.png) [@RyanD004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyanD004)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thetruth-coms-lung-cancer-claim/60304/4 "2001-04-01T05:45:49Z")

</div>

"snopes, [http://www.snopes2.com/spoons/legends/menthol.htm](http://www.snopes2.com/spoons/legends/menthol.htm)

According to that site, only 25% of menthol smokers are blacks, but 75% of Blacks that smoke use menthols (I think anyways)

Which means that Menthols are not more popular with African americans than whites, unless whites are less than 25% of the menthol smokers. Where would the other 50% be coming from then? "

You’re a bit mixed up about your statistics there. Essentially,yes 25% of menthol smokers are black, but blacks are also a minority portion of the population, so you’re not looking at things in proportion. If there are more white people in a country than black people, it is likely that more white people will smoke. However, that does not mean that the %of white population who smoke will be greater than %of black people who smoke. So if 75% of black smokers smoke menthols,and 25% of white smokes do, that means that: given equal numbers of black and white people, black people would tend to smoke more menthols. At least i think. Sometimes late at night i say stupid stuff.