I have seen the death and destruction of cigarette smoke first hand and it led to the death of my father, grandfather and father in law. It is a terrible addiction.
I think about that myself all the time. I have small children.
There are no guarantees in life. We all know smokers who lived to be 80 or 90 something. We all know non-smokers, like my wife's best friends who are in their 30's. One died of brain cancer and left a 2 year old daughter behind and another friend has breast cancer and is still battling.
If something were to happen to me, I wouldn't want my son to blame it on Big Tobacco or Big Government. We all have to take personal responsibility for our own decisions if we want to still claim that this is a free country.
I know it's no consolation, but at least your dad and granddad died as free men. I don't know if I can say the same for us today. Whether we die tomorrow by terrorist attack or in a hospital bed 40 years from now as a result of all the Big Macs and Budweisers or old age.