Posted on 03/07/2006 10:12:12 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Did years of singing in smoky nightclubs kill Dana Reeve, the widow of paralysed Superman actor Christopher Reeve?
She died yesterday of lung cancer even though she was not a smoker.
"Ten to 15 per cent of people who develop lung cancer are thought to be non-smokers. It was said that she had, in the course of being an entertainer, spent a lot of time in pubs, in nightclubs, in which there is a lot of cigarette smoke," said Dr James Mulshine from Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago.
Reeve, 44, won worldwide admiration for her devotion to her husband through his decade of near total paralysis.
He died 15 months ago and late last year she appeared at a gala for the Christopher Reeve Foundation and appeared to be responding well to treatment.
In the US more women die of lung cancer than breast cancer, and one in five American women diagnosed with the disease have never lit a cigarette.
"We know that 90 per cent of lung cancer is linked to direct smoking, the other 10 per cent is tied to occupational exposures, radon and secondhand smoke," said Pat McKone, a senior director of tobacco control with the American Lung Association.
"Dana Reeve was not a smoker, but she did spend many years of her singing career in smoke filled nightclubs."
Her death comes amid a worldwide debate on the danger of passive smoking and attempts to ban smoking from bars, clubs and eateries.
For instance today in New Jersey a coalition of bars, restaurants and bowling alley operators sued the state claiming its ban on smoking law is unconstitutional.
Meanwhile tributes have poured in for Reeve who was best known for standing by her husband through his courageous decade-long battle with paralysis caused by a fall from a horse.
"The brightest light has gone out," said comedian Robin Williams, one of the couple's closest friends. "We will forever celebrate her loving spirit."
Reeve's death came as a shock because she seemed to have the upper hand on the deadly disease since telling the world about her diagnosis last year, only two days after the death of American ABC TV newsman Peter Jennings.
"I'm beating the odds and defying every statistic the doctors can throw at me," Reeve said just a few months ago.
Reeve said she had learned from her late husband's struggle.
"I was married to a man who never gave up," she said.
Her death sparked an outpouring from the Reeves' many friends and admirers in Hollywood and Washington, where she was a vocal backer of stem cell research.
Former president Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton described Reeve as "a model of tenacity and grace".
"Chris was America's superhero, and Dana became our hero, too," added former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry, a close family friend.
Dana Reeve is survived by her 13-year-old son Will and two adult stepchildren, Matthew and Alexandra.
Dana Reeve, who lived in Pound Ridge, New York, had appeared in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions and on the TV shows Law & Order, Oz and All My Children.
She married Reeve in 1992 and abandoned her acting career to care for him after he was paralysed when he fell from a horse in 1995.
Christopher Reeve died on October 10, 2004.
In his autobiography, Still Me, Reeve wrote that he suggested early on to his wife, "Maybe we should let me go."
She responded, "I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you and I love you."
Those were "the words that saved my life", he wrote.
True, Bob Hope and George Allen should have bought the farm as teenagers. And, it is rumored that Bob Hope even hung out with military types near combat zones. S\
Whoops, my bad, should have read as George Burns, not Allen.
Early morning finger/brain wanderings, no doubt cause by second hand smoke from down the street.
When my wife was in chemo we met more than a few ex-smokers who had been diagnosed with cancer. Yes, lungs can heal themselves but nothing erases thirty+ years of smoking. On fellow had quit 12 years before he was diagnosed but cancer can start slow and stay undetectected for awhile.
What did Bush know and when did he know it? You've got to get to the bottom of it, P. America is counting on you lobby for impeachment articles. We can't have people dying of lung cancer.
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It's a smoke screen to cover up the number of non drinkers who suffer from liver cancer! It's second hand booze I tell ya!!!
It has always been around, but extremely rare before cigarette smoking became popular. There is one type, called large cell lung cancer, that is the most common in non-smokers. If she died of this, it could be "natural", but if she died of some other type like squamous cell carcinoma, it is almost certainly due to second-hand smoke.
A hundred years ago, when everyone smoked pipes and cigars and usually did not inhale, lung cancer was almost unheard of. If someone developed one of the types other than large cell cancer, doctors would come from miles around to see it.
-ccm
Dana's mother died of ovarian cancer. Where are the violins for her? Lung cancer/ovarian cancer -- just as tragic.
The World Health Organization report found that second hand smoke actually helped LOWER lung cancer rates compared with the general population. Tommy, can you hear me?
OMG
She obviously spent a lot of time stuck in traffic behind SUV's.
People who use the death of someone to promote a cause, no matter how noble, are beneath contempt.
oooh, that picture of piaps in the back! hahahaha!
And I am very sorry about all those who suffer of disease and death. However, the stem cell treatment is what gave Christopher Reeves the tumor that ultimately killed him.
We all have our appointment with death.
In the meantime, love and live well.
God bless their son.
Actually, there's been a lot of improvement in the environment since we were kids. It's not usually recognized since the sky is falling, the water is filled with toxins, we're all gonna die (!), and it's the fault of those damn Republicans (you know, the same ones who established the EPA) is the message the Ministry of Truth wants people to hear.
On the other hand, in those wonderful socialist utopias: there are places in Europe where you do take your life in your hands drinking tap water (we were warned not to when I lived in Brussels - the water supply had dangerous levels of toxic heavy metals) and Chinese cities are cesspools of pollution.
It's similar to complaints about racism. If you listen to the left and the press (but I repeat myself) racism is rampant and is a Republican disease. No matter that lynchings, night riders, segregated everything, and other features of the Democratic Party / KKK (damn, I repeated myself again) run south are history.
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