<strong><a href="http://www.southcountyurological.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/iStock_000014086794Small.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-341" src="http://www.southcountyurological.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/iStock_000014086794Small-300x231.jpg" alt="iStock_000014086794Small" width="300" height="231" /></a>Are smokers in denial?</strong>

Smoking is not only bad for your lungs it’s bad for your kidneys too. ‘Lighting up’ more than doubles your risk of developing kidney cancer and increases your likelihood of the deadliest form of renal (kidney) cancer. Smoking produces toxins that can languish in the urine. Active smokers repeatedly expose their kidneys to these toxins, which over time, can result in bladder cancer.

UCLA researchers developed a study to characterize bladder cancer patients’ knowledge of tobacco use and their malignancy. They surveyed 790 bladder cancer survivors who were diagnosed between 2006 and 2009.

Researchers found that active smokers were more likely to acknowledge tobacco use as a risk factor for bladder cancer, and that smokers who cite their urologist as their information source were 2.8 times likely to believe that tobacco use caused their cancer.

The study is purportedly the first to establish that informed bladder cancer patients acknowledge their smoking habit caused their cancer.