Ignorance can be very costly to you

Today marks the 200th articles that I've written this year, 60 pieces left for this year.

A few days ago I saw two guys chatting by an idle car, inhaling fully the smell from car's exhaust pipe. We greeted with each other and I told the guys to move away from the exhaust pipe because of the waste gas smell. One guy said, oh it's okay.

This reminds me of a former colleague of mine who told me that her family owned a gas station. Many members in her family got cancer, including two dogs. Had they known that the air around gas stations is filled with benzene which is carcinogenic, they probably would not have owned that station.

Another workplace anecdote is about an elderly patient. She was referred to our clinic by an oncology doctor who toured low-income neighborhood every year offering free cancer screening. The patient complained of a lump on her breast a year or two ago. She waited for the free screening doctor. By the time she showed up at our office, her breast lump already broke out and was discharging pus. Her breast cancer already advanced to late stage. Had she known that a lump on her breast was not something she could ignore, she would most likely see a doctor earlier.

Ignorance is costly. Ignorance is expensive. It can cost a life. Nothing is more expensive than life itself. Arm yourself with the common-sense healthcare knowledge.