Date Published: 11/05/2020 [Source]
Winchester resident Kristin Zimet has had lung cancer twice and beaten it twice. Having defied expectations, she wants the community to know that appearances are not always reality.
Many assumptions come with a lung cancer diagnosis — one being that the victims must have done it to themselves.
But although smoking can lead to a cancer diagnosis, Zimet, 72, says she was never a smoker. She doesn't know what caused her to develop cancer twice, first in her right lung and then in her left, but she suspects it could be from radon poisoning.
"When they don't know a reason, that's one possible suspect," she said. "And houses in this area do need to be checked for radon and protected for high levels."
She said that even before her two cancer diagnoses, her house had a protective device installed that blows radon out from the basement and into the air outside.
Lung cancer can also occur from exposure to asbestos in older homes, Reddy said. That, along with radon, are the main risk factors for women who are nonsmokers, she said.
Despite medical advances in recent years, Reddy said lung cancer is still difficult to treat because of the lack of symptoms in many patients as well as a lack of education among the general public.
"There is a huge amount of stigma [that] you did it to yourself," she said. "That doesn't mean that we should not treat them."