Smoke, not nicotine, is the problem

Sun Times ^ | November 18, 2004 | Dr. Brad Rodu

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Today is the American Cancer Society's 28th Great American Smokeout. The event is certainly a smoke-out -- clean air laws kick smokers outdoors for their nicotine fixes. But is it really ''great''?

No! Because the event suggests a wrongheaded option: Quit tobacco or die. The reality is that for the 400,000 American smokers who die each year, total abstinence was impossible and entirely unnecessary.

Medical research shows that you can achieve almost all of the health benefits of quitting smoking without quitting tobacco.

Nicotine, while powerfully addictive, is about as safe as caffeine, another widely consumed addictive drug. It's tobacco smoke, with thousands of toxic agents, that leads to cancer, heart disease and emphysema. Eliminate the smoke, and you eliminate virtually all of the risk.

Modern smokeless tobacco products can satisfy your nicotine craving, and save your life. Research proves that smokeless products are 98 percent safer than cigarettes -- a fact that even tobacco prohibitionists have begun to acknowledge. Our university research group has documented that smokers who switch to smokeless tobacco reduce their risk for all smoking-related illnesses, including mouth cancer.

On average, smokers live eight years less than those who never used tobacco; smokeless users lose just 15 days. Statistically, smokeless users have about the same risk of dying as automobile users.

Newer smokeless tobacco products deliver the nicotine kick you crave and can be used invisibly. They are available as wafers or small tobacco pellets the size of breath mints; some completely dissolve during use, leaving no tobacco residue.

Smokeless tobacco is already working as a safer alternative for many former smokers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 1.5 to 2 million former smokers have already switched. For more information on how you can be smoke-free, visit our research-based university Web page at www.uab.edu/smokersonly.

[SheLion]

That urn is way to pretty to spit in. I would use it for flowers.

Good for you that you quit. I enjoy it too much to quit. If I ever come to tire of smoking, I will quit. But I am still enjoying it so.

You find the neatest pictures. :)

[MeekOneGOP]

That urn is way to pretty to spit in ..... I would use it for flowers.

haha! :^)

Good for you that you quit. I enjoy it too much to quit. If I ever come to tire of smoking, I will quit. But I am still enjoying it so.

When I run into someone that expresses an interest in quitting, I tell them that will quit when THEY decide to quit. Nobody ever successfully nagged anyone to not smoke. I tried to talk my Mom into quitting in the mid-70's, and she really got upset with me so finally I quit trying. It has to be self-driven, which is what got me off the smokes.

You find the neatest pictures. :)

Thanks.

[SheLion]

When I run into someone that expresses an interest in quitting, I tell them that will quit when THEY decide to quit. Nobody ever successfully nagged anyone to not smoke. I tried to talk my Mom into quitting in the mid-70's, and she really got upset with me so finally I quit trying. It has to be self-driven, which is what got me off the smokes.

My daddy was up to three packs a day for a long time. One morning, he went to light up and he just made the most horrible face. He crinkled that pack, threw it away and never touched another cigarette. I think a person has to reach that point to just kick them.

I tried quitting once for 5 days. The most miserable 5 days of my life. I wasn't ready. And I still enjoy smoking. Oh well. :)

[MeekOneGOP]

:^)