Posted on 10/17/2006 1:09:34 PM PDT by trumandogz
TUESDAY, Oct. 17 (HealthDay News) -- A new study finds that at least 1 in every 4 smokers will develop progressive and incurable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a much higher risk than previously believed.
COPD is a respiratory disease that results in blocked air flow to the lungs and grows progressively worse.
For this study, published online in the journal Thorax, researchers at Hvidovre Hospital analyzed data on 8,000 men and women, ages 30 to 60. All were monitored for 25 years as part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study.
At the start of the study, all the participants' lungs were healthy and working normally. However, over the course of the 25 years, the lungs of almost all the male non-smokers continued to function normally, compared to 60 percent of men who continued to smoke.
Among women, 90 percent of non-smokers still had healthy lungs at the end of 25 years, compared to 70 percent of smokers.
Overall, 25 percent of the participants developed moderate or severe COPD over the 25 years. Persistent smokers were six times more likely to develop COPD than non-smokers.
During the 25 years, there were 2,900 deaths in the study group. Of those deaths, 109 were directly attributable to COPD, and nearly all those deaths were in people who were active smokers at the start of the study. Only two non-smokers died of COPD.
The study also found a sharp decline in the risk of COPD among people who stopped smoking soon after the start of the study. Over the 25 years, none of these ex-smokers developed severe COPD.
Neither did she have hysteria, since that is impossible until a later age.
My grandmother died from lung cancer. She never smoked in her life.
I'm a flat tax girl, myself...so it doesn't apply.
I have never heard of asthma in a 2 day old infant either. It develops later too.
A company I used to work for banned smoking in the parking garage - I immediately quit. Clear indication I was working for idiots.
Then you don't understand the flat tax....
That happens. You can also theoretically get AIDS by accidentally pricking your finger on a rusty nail (that just happens to have an HIV strain on it). But smoking is clearly how the overwhelming majority of lung cancer victims contract the disease, just as unprotected sex is the way the overwhelming majority of AIDS victims get infected with HIV.
Only if you let it by keeping them in a bubble.
And I said she was "days" old.
I don't remember how many days, I only remember the story as being "days-old".
I'll ask her.
You quit smoking? Congratulations on escaping your addiction!
I guess...to reiterate...that's a consumption tax...not a flat tax.
Why not? if 25% of the pop can pay $5/pk for their sins, why not 100% of the pop for equal harm? Sounds pretty flat to me.
I guess...to reiterate...that's a consumption tax...not a flat tax.
I immediately responded, "Hell, yes."
So he did, and I found a job elsewhere, and took 20 of his employees with me.
Paula, you just made me go through an elementary explanation of wage/price demand, and the theory of taxation, and now you're lecturing on the merits of the fair tax?
Just kill me now.
The smokers I get in my ambulance are in bad shape, joke if you want but it ain't pretty to die from lung disease. I see it every day. /soap box
Actually, if we had any intellectual honesty in our government, the TOFU tax would be about ten times as high.
Watch the dems scream at that. LOL.
Paula, you just made me go through an elementary explanation of wage/price demand, and the theory of taxation, and now you're lecturing on the merits of the fair tax?
Just kill me now.
Dang, dude...here's my thinking: here's why I support a flat (not "Fair") tax. A fixed percentage off the top...and then you do what you like with the rest.
If you want to buy cigs...fine. If you want to buy booze...fine. If you want to buy real estate...fine.
The rest of the money is yours.
Mine in Herkimer is still abandoned. Pine/Cherry trees growing, will harvest them in time.
/soapbox (GRIN)
I LIKE keeping my money.
Everything dies in NY, what with the taxes and all.......and when we get spitzer and co after the next election it will be worse. Bloomberg will most likely export more anti-smoking stuff upstate. It will be delovely doncha know! /sarcasm from a nonsmoker.
Me, too...we agree!
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