Believed to have acquired cancer through secondhand smoke, Ronald Lizotte plans to testify against legislation to expand exemptions to the state's new smoking ban.

10:08 AM EST on Tuesday, March 1, 2005

BY KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer

Ronald Lizotte's treatment for tongue cancer put him through hell. At its worst, he was nearly drowning in mucus, raw lesions pocked his tongue and throat, and "swallowing anything was like consuming fire and glass."

But Lizotte had never smoked, which made him wonder how he had acquired squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue, otherwise known as "smoker's tumor."

Lizotte's doctors suspect secondhand smoke, from his father's two-to-three-pack-a-day habit. As this 56-year-old life-insurance salesman says, "This is what can happen to innocent bystanders."

The Cranston resident was diagnosed with cancer in 1999 and this month celebrates his five-year anniversary of being cancer-free.

He plans to testify in opposition to legislation that would create new exemptions to the smoking ban that takes effect tonight at midnight. A hearing on the bill has been postponed until later this month.

"It makes me angry to know that people are not worried about lives," Lizotte says of House Bill 5020, sponsored by House Labor Chairman Joseph L. Faria, D-Central Falls.

"They try to jump on the bandwagon of personal freedoms," Lizotte says. "But what about the people who don't smoke?" Why should they be subjected to smoke at their workplace, at restaurants or bars? he asks.

Secondhand smoke "isn't just something a bunch of scientists dreamed up," says Lizotte in a speech he has written for his House testimony, on behalf of the American Cancer Society -- Rhode Island. "It makes people sick. It kills people and torments their families."

Representative Faria says he is sponsoring the bill on behalf of bar owners in his district. "They are constituents of mine, and they have a big concern about their sales dropping off considerably. They're looking at anywhere between 25 and 30 percent," Faria says.

Faria -- who quit smoking three years ago -- says, "Believe me, I'm not in favor of people smoking, but on the other hand, I'm not in favor of taking everybody's rights and livelihoods away."

Faria also says the state is being hypocritical: "We're telling people not to smoke, yet we're balancing our budget on the cigarette tax." He adds, "We said to Lincoln [Park] and [Newport Grand] Jai Alai, 'OK, you can allow smoking.' Why did we do that? Because they bring in $240 million a year."

Faria says he expects the hearing on his bill to be held on March 21 or 22.

Journal photo / Gretchen Ertl

"It makes me angry to know that people are not worried about lives," Ronald Lizotte, of Cranston, says of the House bill to roll back the smoking ban.

LIZOTTE'S FATHER nearly always had a cigarette burning at his fingertips.

When he wasn't working as a chemist at dye factories, he did handyman "fix-it" projects for family and friends.

"My father was pretty much a chain smoker" Lizotte says. "When I was a kid, I idolized my father. He'd do all these projects for people, and I'd be holding the flashlight. I'd be sucking in the smoke; I got a lot of it at close range."

Dr. Charles Ruhl, a head and neck surgeon at Rhode Island Hospital who was a member of Lizotte's treatment team, says Lizotte likely acquired his cancer through that exposure to secondhand smoke.

"He [Lizotte] grew up for years in a household where his father was a very heavy smoker. He had no other risk factors -- no other relatives with cancer of the throat or neck," and Lizotte was an otherwise healthy man, Ruhl says.

"There are plenty of studies out there that show a link between secondhand smoke and, not only cancer, but heart disease, chronic lung disease and a lot of childhood diseases," including asthma, Ruhl says.

"In kids, respiratory infections are very closely tied to exposure to secondhand smoke. There have been studies that have proven that pretty definitively. I have seen plenty of kids who have chronic ear infections, and I always ask about smoke exposure in the home," says Ruhl; often, he learns, there is exposure.

Because he did not smoke, "I was totally blind-sided" by the diagnosis of cancer, Lizotte says.

Lizotte sees the irony: he is a self-described health fanatic, whose rigorous workout regimen kept him toned and fit. He boasted six-pack abs and a mouth full of perfect teeth. "I was fastidious," Lizotte says.

Just before his 51st birthday in 1999, Lizotte had a physical, during which he learned that his good cholesterol put him in a low-risk category for heart attacks, and "my reflexes were like somebody 20 years younger than me."

He felt great -- except for a persistent sore throat.

At his wife's urging, he visited an ear, nose and throat specialist.

"The doctor put a tube down my nose [with a camera on the end], and sure enough, he found something there. He said it might be a salivary gland that went wild," Lizotte recalls. But when the doctor saw the CT scan, he said, "I think you've got a problem."

Lizotte's doctors didn't sugarcoat things. In the case of squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue, "The doctors told me that people fail because they just can't tolerate the treatment."

But Lizotte made up his mind: He wasn't going to die.

"I've always been a very positive person," he says. "I always felt I had a good public speaking voice. I never thought I did enough with it." He wasn't finished yet, and he wasn't going to let cancer beat him.

The treatments caused a host of side effects including excessive mucus ("I kept almost drowning in it"), and a foul yeast infection in his mouth. His tongue was so swollen that he could not open his mouth.

"I really couldn't talk for two or three months. . . . I couldn't drink, or eat," he says. Lizotte dropped 70 pounds and required a feeding tube. At his worst, he looked at himself in the mirror, "and I saw an 80-year-old man."

Nonetheless, he withstood the treatments, and on March 13 will celebrate his fifth anniversary of being declared cancer-free.

Lizotte did sustain permanent nerve damage in his neck and other lasting physical changes. "Everything in the back of my tongue is gone. I have to sip something" all the time, he says. "My voice is different. It's not as strong and forceful as it was."

But he's alive, and happy to tell his story as a cautionary tale against the hazards of secondhand smoke.

With a citizenship grant from Amica Mutual Insurance, in Lincoln, where he works, Lizotte has recently shared his story with hundreds of high school students in Rhode Island.

He told them that he viewed his cancer "like a lion standing right in front of me," and described how he learned to look fear in the face. He uses parables and humor to drive the point home about the dangers of smoking, to both smokers and those around them.

"Kids still feel like they're supermen, and they're not worried about getting something," says Lizotte. He points out, however, that by smoking or from exposure to secondhand smoke, "they may have already established the groundwork" for cancer and other disease.

Karen Lee Ziner can be reached at (401) 277-7375, or at kziner [at] projo.com

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