I meant   "does smoking really cause color cancer?"  I don't think so. 

Posted by: Marcie

I meant   "does smoking really cause color cancer?" 

Yes, without a shadow of a doubt.

Smoking significantly increases the risk of colorectal cancer and mortality from colorectal cancer!

From this Norwegian study, which looked at over 600,000 patients ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3984060/) :

The increased risk of rectal cancer mortality was about 40% higher for male ever smokers compared with male never smokers. 

And this study https://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/18/12/3362):

The incidence of colorectal cancer was ∼30% higher in current than never smokers in analyses that combined men and women, and adjusted for all measured risk factors

Hi everyone,

I suppose I understand why people would get upset by the implications of the ad, though I personally am not offended.  I am no expert on this either as I have never smoked, so I don't know if smoking can cause colon cancer. However, between my mother's dire warnings, family members dying of lung cancer, and the ads against smoking, I had the bejabers scared out of me to ever start smoking.  I must admit that the "c" word and the chemo/radiation therapy scared me more than the thought of having an ostomy. I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer and the reason I decided to have a end sigmoid colostomy. I figured it was better than going through the treatments.

Stella  

Well, if everyone wants to educate the "normal people"- this is the way to go..  All you have to do is say that "ostomates are mad a hell..."  And they will google it.  BUT WE DID NOTHING WRONG !!! We got sick!!! And others will also-sadly. I am just defending that I or anyone here did anything wrong. My Doctors claim stress was my enemy ………… Stress can kill you- as it did me-- I tend to keep thing inside.. *but your getting an ear full today huh? :-)hum-- Dogtalker- light cigs in your butt?  one lost fart to escape and your a goner!! :-) + I have seen people suffer smokers cough and death from smoking when I was 15 years old.  I worked at a nursing home back then.  But as a teenager, "it wont happen to  me" hahaha.  Don't think the filled pouch will do what you all want is all. because 'it wont happen to me" attitude. If a Dr. said, now it is your decision- NOW!! Never smoke, or in one hour you will wake up with a pouch.. Well????????  daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa????????? now were talking...……..

WELL THIS SUBJECT OF OPTIONS IS OVER...……………………………..

I have never smoked but yet have an osteomy that gives me great quality of life! This picture is a horrible example of someone living life with an osteomy. I have a full time job & great social life! I travel by plane & car. My life is worth living because of my motified body! Don’t love this add!

Their is no doubt that smoking causes cancer, and any thing that can be be done to stop this habit should be done. This debate has shown how some ostomates have not excepted their surgery. (not blaming any one) But their are other ways to do it which do not target a group of people directly. I even feel bad for disagreeing with my fellow ostomate friends on this but hey that is what debate is all about.

I think we have to not loose sight that this ad campaign is about  getting people NOT to smoke,   not about ostomates. We are just the poster children and its a scare tactic for sure. Its not meant to reflect on why we have ostomies and colorectal cancer is just one of the many reason we have our high tech evacuation systems. 

I agree with John, that it is really good to try to keep people from smoking but also see the possibility of the side side effect of maybe frightening people  from getting this  life enhancing surgery. The picture is meant to be scary, large red scar, bulging bag, etc etc.... ( plastic bag in the drawers, just like Eric does it)

If this was really about colorectal cancer they could add to the list: western diet: high fat, low fibre ( vegan ostomy fits in well here), being overweight, alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyle. As well as many other causes , like genetics or if you have other gut problems., as well as smoking.

So they are really targeting smoking. 

I think its pretty well proven that making the product more expensive with higher taxes  reduces the number of young people who start smoking. And hardly anyone takes it up in middle age! Thats probably already happening in Canada as it is here.

A side note, in Mexico they have pictures of dead rats on the pack of cigarettes. ( so does that make us in good company?) Ha.

How about NOT SELLING THEM ???????????????? That should cut it in half at least, for starters.  I do not feel 90%, I would never have started to smoke if they cost so much like they do now., and if they did not sell them? 3/4th the battle.  but remember is not our battle to stop those that really want to smoke.  We have our own battles. We needed help and found this blog.  There is help for stopping smoking out there SO MUCH more so than for us ostomates. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are just some real red necks out there that wouldn't mind a pouch.. so let it be. Some people don't care..  Why should we?  Look at the world now?  It is a mess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We have to protect ourselves soon. another few years???????????? We have a lot to clean up besides cig. butts. But can't control people.   You can talk until your blue in the face- some just don't hear you..  Some people have to make their own mistakes in life.  

The tobacco companies are not out to do any good in the world. Since smoking has fallen off in the US ( and Canada, I presume) they are now heavily marketing American brands in Asia. Especially to women.... brand new market.

Scary shit indeed.

What? did they find tarter in the colon?  Nothing was found of this in my colon.   I did not have cancer.  But tarter harden so much.. Lets face it, smoking?  Everyone will WHO SMOKES OR SMOKED will get a form copd, which is a main issue of smoking.  I got it fast and hard. (like everything else I do) Mild tho. And again some of you smokers will not get a mild case of copd.  I pray u don't. So... why use a filled pouch that we don't care much for, and make us feel more dirty?  JUAT DONT SELL THE DARN THINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Out law them!! THAT IS WHERE THE EFFORT SHOULD BE!! Not trying to scare you.. Not good for you? don't sell them.  Simple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

Thanks for your thoughts on this. One thing I wanted to mention, in light of your comment about the pouch being shown on the patient's right side (suggestive of an ileostomy rather than a colostomy), is that it's really common for graphics teams to flip images around so as to fit things on the page how they want it to look, as their goal is a nice layout, not anatomical accuracy. This very well could have been a patient with a left-sided colostomy, but the graphics team, not knowing the difference, mirror-flipped the image. Anyways, great read, I have been enjoying reading your blog posts.

Hi Dominica,

You're right and that also came to mind - I was just trying really hard to find something to complain about because I thought the whole thing was really well put together ;)

I really appreciate your comment, Barbara. Living with an ostomy is not the end - that's the important thing we must always tell people! So glad that you've been able to do all that!

It's very possible to have an ileostomy due to colon cancer. I have one, because my entire colon was determined to be at risk for additional cancer, even though I only had one small cancerous spot.

Barbara, the Europeans do tend to go a bit off balance on their ads, and such.  They are direct and sometimes rude like this.  I don't think we will see this in the usa.  BUT IF I DO SEE IT????????????????? hell to pay !!! Like dona said Mexico has a picture of a rat on their packs.  I SAY DONT SELL THEM.  let ALL the country's do something right for  change.. instead of sitting there making awful medical pictures etc. CVS stores don't sell cigs. for the last 3 years.  And other stores are doing the same thing.  Just want to sell healthy-and this is catching on.  This is what should be done.. 

Wow,  I was immediately upset by this add. But I think that what got to me was the years that I have suffered from Inflammatory Bowel Disease. It minimized the years of the pain, the out of pocket medications, the appointments, the lack of proper testing, and information and so forth. Then the lack of support hit me. I was stunned by the fact that something, that has been a very beautiful thing for me was somewhat compared to carrying a "TOILET" around all the time. A toilet...wow, that was low. We all know that toilets can be offensive. They can stink and stink is made IN them and that alone can be offensive.  We have all had it complained about by our siblings.  My father was a smoker. Having a wife and daughter with asthma most likely helped in his decision to quit smoking. I know we all hassled him to quit. I remember him coughing a fair deal. He eventually quit when I was about 14, he had been smoking since grade school.  Several  years back, it was said his lungs are so clean you would never know he was a heavy smoker. That was over 40 years ago. About seven years ago he called me and began asking questions about my pouch system and how I felt about it. This was not like my father at all. It was also probably the first, really open talk we ever had about Ostomy life. I new immediately what was going on. He had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He was terrified. Having a wife and daughter with severe Asthma most likely helped in his decision to quit. On more than one occasion he was rushing one of us, mostly Mom. to emerge.  As I am writing this, there is a show on TV  called the antiques road show, pre-recorded. There is a poster up with two cowboys, one is bending down to a sitting position, the other leaning down, both with cowboy boots and spurs on and the one standing bends to  very politely light the "cigarette" for the other. The bottom of the add says "Patronize Your Home-Town Merchant...He's Your Neighbor".  The add is for Levi Jeans. Worth  1400.00 to 2000.00 dollars.  We have been battling adds our whole life. It is all a kind of pressure placed to make decisions to purchase something. To be social.  Before I had not seen the rest of the add, I truly thought it was for the cigarettes.  It is all very deceiving. My Dad smoked because being a farm boy, it was something everybody did. I have seen the blue noses of uncles who were alcoholics, the yellow skin of liver failure, heard the gasps and sputters of a dieing smoker. It is not pretty at all. It was however a choice  made from the start. It annoys me to no end that something like Inflammatory Bowel Disease was minimized to the comparison of carrying around a 'TOILET" for the rest of my life. Like we store it up all day and it is that easy. I feel for the models in the pictures in  these nasty adds. But, they too made a choice. Now they want to share the positive side of having an Ostomy. It's all good now! Why, because it saved their life and they no longer have to deal with the pain and fear of cancer and possibly dieing  any time soon.  They now know their families will be okay.  They know they will be okay regardless to the choice they made. Part of me gets this and the other part says, yes, it is over for them, good for them. They are so brave.  Sure they may have a problem here and there throughout their lives, but will they have the issues that people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Birth Defects deal with every single day for the rest of their lives. Progressive disease, and extra-Intestinal Manifestational health issues. They likely will not have to deal with that and, lets talk pain. There has not been a day in my life since I was TEN YEARS OLD that I have not dealt with pain, diarrhea, constipation, and more pain, and nausea and more pain.  So much so that I thought it was normal. I really was not upset about the pictures except for the fact that a great lot of us are trying to keep some weight on or to gain it. We deal  with so much, on a daily basis, we have been called brave, strong, as my sister said..."hard to kill", not that she was trying to kill me, as it was, it was the disease that was trying so hard.  I found it offensive that the pouch was compared to the "carrying a toilet around all day", a  TOILET! What is it with that? That was what got to me. It says that we stink, have stains, and have odor and germs which can be  publicly offensive. Have big pockets of you know what hanging off our sides. Most of us know what a full baby diaper can smell like. I personally do not carry my output around all day long. I am in the bathroom on average every forty minuets. It is exhausting keeping up with the fluids, the dietary needs for survival, and the amount of hand washing is enough to get labeled a germafobe. Keeping up with prescriptions, and always making sure we have enough equipment for our new reality. Most of us still deal with problems associated to Inflammatory Bowel Disease, daily pain, and the issues that gave us our Ostomy?  This is not something we chose, it chose us.  Smokers make a choice from before the first cigarette. I know my father did. My Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. None of us kids smoked, not on purpose...it was second hand. Once Dad quit, my asthma, and my mothers, eventually went mostly away. For the smokers, they decided to take that first cigarette and for what ever reason, peer pressure, a bad choice...continued smoking. Once the cancer of a related kind is diagnosed, they will say  I should have quit. So, the Government, dealing with the ginormous medical costs  is trying still to make smokers and potential smokers make a different decision. So they do this with health issues. Our health is to be so important to us that we never start smoking in the first place. You know well the list of topics they have used to discourage smokers. The point is, it has not worked. So, now, in order to try again they need to make it seem even more offensive then death alone. so it is compared to a toilet. A social stigma. So, they choose an Ileostomy, which seems a little off to me as it should be the Colostomy. Sure they can flip the print or what have you, but they got it mostly wrong again. Now, we are even carrying a toilet around. I have a suggestion for government...the one thing most people like the most is their money. Why not raise that cost, as suggested, for cigarettes, and then put such a tax on it called the MEDICAL TAX and charge for the future bills and costs of trying to heal those who have cancer from cigarettes. Treat it like a death bank account. Once it is proven that their cancer is related to smoking, then use that money to pay for their treatment and surgeries and tests, hospital time, nursing care and equipment needed for their Ostomy. Their after care, and every single thing that is related to their cancer.  Once it became knowledgeable that cancer is related to smoking,  the government must have realized the medical costs would be immense, yet they have not done anything prominent about it yet. Using an  Ostomy to try and scare smokers off is somewhat insulting to those of us who have suffered so long with such undesirable symptoms we would not wish them on an annoying, barking, sleep stealing noisey neighbors dog. Perhaps putting a medical tax on the upfront costs of buying cigarettes, to pay for the future medical care and treatment would be the deterrent. Just the cost of the first pack of cigarettes alone would throw them off key. They most likely would not buy them in the first place, and they certainly would not be able to "lend" them either. I have seen first hand the effects of smoking related disease to humans and it is awful. It is hard to believe that this is cause by something as small as a cigarettes or cigar or a pipe...or....I know there is more but I am tired. Think of the affect it has on family and the ones left behind after a death. What about how they heal from what they have seen and heard. It hurts more then just the smoker. Now we are also, in Canada, dealing with the awful possible affects pot being legalized soon. Pot has smoke also. Just because it is used for fun and to relax by many does not make it any less lethal. The fact that it can be used for medical purposes is wonderful. Wake up Government, it is way past time to do something about this issue and keep the smoke where it belongs...to fires. Not the smoldering smudge and the end of a rolled up piece of tobacco and paper.  Do your children a favor, so they do not have to make amends for bad choices of others when they are adults and paying taxes. I do not think using an Ostomy Pouch to teach anti-smoking is the way to go.  It ma scare some and gross others but, but really, this is what we with inflammatory Bowel Disease live with, it is not a choice of ours.

Hi Linda, your post again says my problem with this Ad, it offends my fellow ostomate. we live in a new age where we are trying to respect colour, sexuality, religious believe and disability!! and rightly so. an ostomate is a person who is a survivor of illness and to be used like this will only serve to hinder being seen as a whole person again. You cannot take part of society and use it to highlight a problem no matter how serious.

Personally, I’m not offended. I have a urostomy from a cystectomy due to bladder cancer likely caused by passive smoke. Anything PR to reduce smoking is fine by me. I’ve got a stomach...I LIVE with it.

John, correct me if I am wrong.. but I don't see "survivor" in the ad. You don't have to be a smoker to be as lucky as us to have a front butt. :-)…….. no one understands but us what we and are going through-that is where the respect is here on the blog. We all have options, and fairly accepted. yes.  But I think they went over board to us as we are survivors………  (Most of us stopped smoking and that is a hard thig to do, and that is a climb within it self. I congradulate all who succeded. Those that never smoked don't know this climb..  I quit and I am proud of this step. (never did so many zig- saw puzzles in my life) but I did it!! )  I don't mind to say I have a pouch, and let others look at me and think wow she is great!! And of course, we get the poor thing look. But I am NOT going to show and tell a smoker your going to get this if u don't stop. They have it all in there hands to google if they want to.  Best to you my friend.