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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.)

Against every anecdote such as yours, one can give anecdotes to the contrary.

Yup.

My father, a heavy smoker until the week he died, lived to 94 (and buit us a room full of furnature at 93). My mother, a heavy smoker until her 70s, is still with us at 85.

OTOH I'm 56, two of my girlfriends from my teens or early 20s died of lung cancer in their 40s, a third was diagnosed, this spring, in her early 50s. All were smokers.

If you graph the data in the link I provided above one of the things that really jumps out at you is that smokers their 40s experience a rapid rise in the listed cancers to around seven times the rate of non-smokers, and that this difference persists on into their 70's, at which point the gap begins to close.

That's to me one of the really tragic aspects of smoking: that for many smokers it not days in the twilight of their lives that are lost, but that they are taken from us in the prime of life.

I'm no prohibitionist, and I have nothing but sympathy for smokers who want to quit, and can't.

But given that these three women were typical in that they started smoking in their early teens, that nicotine is highly addictive, and that if you don't start smoking until your early twenties you are unlikely ever to do so, I don't think they were in a position to make a rational decision to start smoking.

And if I was Supreme Despot, providing ciggies to those under 16 would be a crime with pretty draconian consequences for the adults who at some point in the process have to make such diversions possible.

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

Excuse me, but all my family members smoked. NO one died of LUNG cancer. They all died over the age of 76. One grandmother lived to be 86 and smoked three packs of unfiltered Camels a day. Who are you to tell ME that I will get lung cancer? That's a joke.

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.

I'm sorry about your friend, but "I" am not a heavy smoker. Not that it's any of your business.

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.)

Well, I have been studying the research long enough not to believe these computer generated figures. At least I won't die of liver cancer from being an alcoholic, now will I?

Everyone has to die from something, my friend. And in my society, it will be the Lord that decides when and where. Thanks!