Surgeon general expands list of diseases linked to smoking

http://releases.usnewswire.com ^ | Updated 5/27/2004 1:44 PM | HHS Press Office

[Lee'sGhost]

Uh, and of course accumulation would have no affect.

I suppose you sip half a teaspoon of gas and it wouldn't kill you -- unless you did it 10-30 times a day every day.

No thanks, I'll pass on the rocket fuel, thank you.

[Gabz]

You're dislike of smoking bans does nothing in the way of mitigating your holier than thou attitude towards smokers.

[johnb838]

I gained 55 when I quit drinking. After three years I'm within shouting distance of getting it all off, but I'm still not eager to give up my cigs yet.

p.s. To the cig nazis. I started when I was thirteen primarily as an attempt to ease the stress from child abuse. And you can never really quit. You're always in danger of relapse. I've quit for about a year and a half before. I WILL quit, but I resent the nazi attitude. The image of people holding their noses in New York City from a smoker while sucking down the products of combustion coming out of millions upon millions of taxi cabs and private vehicles strikes me as the height of hypocrisy.

[Taliesan]

Oh good grief. "Judgmental"? Stop using terms from the Gospel to insulate an obviously suicidal practice from criticism. All opinions are not "judgmental".

If you put a gun to your head and pull the trigger, that is stupid. Anyone who says "Uh, that is stupid" is not being "judgmental", they are stating the obvious.

[CSM]

Do you walk into fast food restaurants and go from table to table calling people stupid? Or do you only have courage to search out threads on internet discussion boards?

[CSM]

"Uh, and of course accumulation would have no affect."

Yep and your body has the ability to expell many toxins after exposure. That is why we have exposure limits set by the EPA for the toxins on your list. If you advocate a zero exposure limit for those toxins, then we better shut down manufacturing plants and ban cars!

[johnb838]

Personally, I believe that above ground nuclear testing killed many millions of people but was blamed on smoking. I can't prove that of course, but it all occurred shortly before the effort to demonize smokers began.

Woman"Smoker is the N!&&er of the World"(Paraphrase of title of John Lennon song, please don't zot me)

[Lee'sGhost]

Actually I was quoting the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. Memo 1978 -- as CITED in Georgina Lovell. Your comment did concern me however so I checked. The memo is authentic.

Sorry about the Lovell thing, though. That's not right.

[Taliesan]

I have only observed they use rationalizations and mockery to defend suicide. "Holier than thou" is another such defense.

Again, the first step toward freedom is to give up euphemism and say things the way they are (sort of like not allowing the abortion industry to call a baby a fetus).

Every post on this thread attacking the surgeon general's report should just be paraphrased thusly: "I prefer breathing toxic fumes to being a part of 13 years of my grandchildrens' lives."

[johnb838]

Yes, "nicotine is a poison."—Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. Memo 1978

But wait! They always say that the gum and the patch are safe. That it's the tar and additives that getcha. WTF?

And, why would they putall those additiveds in there now that they are under so much scrutiny. And why would those evil tobacco companies put all those nasties in there? They must be like the evil Republicans who want to kill all the children and old people.

[Gabz]

I did not question the authenticity of the memo - just the questionable means by which it was obtained and who how it is used by the author you cited.

[Taliesan]

I suppose we aren't going to have a constructive conversation, you and I. I didn't intend to insult everyone -- but if an insult would get you to stop, it would be worth it.

Have a good day.

[johnb838]

Think about it. Add more than a decade to your life by not smoking. That's a lot of birthdays, school plays, soccer games, marriages, and births.

What if you don't have any of that stuff? What if there are never marriages and births in your life but only deaths? Why should that person care?

What if that last ten years is just going to be sitting around lonely in a home with no children or grandchildren to visit? Why should that person care?

Smokers, if they die younger, save the system money. And I'm not even sure that that's true. There is so much agenda driven junk science on both sides that I really don't have any idea of what is true and what is propaganda.

[Gabz]

The SG's report states cervical cancer is caused by smoking - cervical cancer is caused by a virus not smoking.

I have no problems with truth - I have a major problem with exagerations, particularly when they amount to lies in an effort to make something seem worse than it is.

And you yourself are doing it with your claim :"I prefer breathing toxic fumes to being a part of 13 years of my grandchildrens' lives."

Even the experts do not claim 13 years, and they are just numbers pulled out of thin air.

Plese let me knowabout some of your pleasurable habits, and I will be more than happy to show you haw they are detrimental to your health and that participating in them is selfish.

have a good day.

[johnb838]

I think the operative scripture would be "Why are you concerned with the mote in thy neighbor's eye and ignore the beam in thine own?"

[Taliesan]

You're right. We have no idea whether any of it is true. And the last decade of life is not worth living anyway.

[CSM]

Feel free to hurl insults, that is an effective tool to avoiding answering the question. Now, I'll ask again, do you walk into fast food restaurants and go from table to table calling people stupid? Do you look through other people's carts in the grocery store making sure they don't make stupid purchases?

You come onto this thread and call people stupid, now what other nanny behavior monitoring do you participate in? If you don't like the mirror I'm holding up so you can see yourself, you should abandon any smoking/property rights threads.

[Judith Anne]

So if I say that I prefer dragging the toxic fumes of a legal product over some of the most sensitive tissues of my body to participating in 13 years of my grandchildren's life will you leave us smokers alone and quit trying to raise our taxes to pay for some cockeyed social agenda?

The misuse of the tobacco fine money is one of the biggest boondoggles and scandals of the past few years. Why don't you go fix that before you start trying to collect more money?

I notice that the anti-smoking crowd has finally gotten a little more honest, saying they can raise cigarette pack taxes to help balance their state budgets and fix their frikken potholes, and at the same time, force people to buy fewer cigarettes so they'll be "healthier" and live 13 years longer.

I find that to be low, thieving social engineering disguised as busybody concern.

[Taliesan]

You're right. When Jesus said that to the Pharisees, He had in mind people who tell smokers their defenses are stupid and selfish, while they themselves...what? Eat cheeseburgers?

Yeah, that's what that passage in the Gospel means. Sure.

[Taliesan]

I don't support raising taxes. But thanks for asking before you typed all that.