Really? You fell prey to this?
Hey! I'm not gay, do not drink, eat not much red meat and coffee and cigarettes are me. Since I was 16. And I love both!
Recently had my yearly physical and my lungs are still clear as a bell! :)
Lucky you. When you were 16 and began smoking, you had no way of knowing that you wouldn't be one of those smokers that does get lung cancer.
Against every anecdote such as yours, one can give anecdotes to the contrary. Last year, I heard that a former colleague (where I used to teach), who was a heavy smoker, had brain and lung cancer and only had six months to live. I don't think he was 50.
Epidemiologists don't deal in anecdotal evidence. They deal with large data sets, from which it becomes clear what the relative risks of different vices are. They are very confident in their conclusion that more than 400,000 Americans die prematurely each year from smoking, an average of 12 years prematurely. About 100,000 die of lung cancer, about 100,000 die of obstructive lung diseases, and about 200,000 die of heart disease. (The Framingham study, involving 12,000 individuals and lasting 50 years, enabled epidemiologists to tell how much heart disease is caused by smoking and how much is due to diet and lack of exercise.)