[Gabz]

Tobacco causes more than 440,000 deaths annually and results in more than $75 billion in direct medical costs a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I wish they would stop trotting out this tired old bogus line of horse dung.

[SheLion]

Tobacco causes more than 440,000 deaths annually and results in more than $75 billion in direct medical costs a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I wish they would stop trotting out this tired old bogus line of horse dung.

My thoughts exactly!

American Cancer Society Admits "Mistake" in Ad

At last, the unambiguous, unvarnished truth -- the ACS had lied in their ad.

Tobacco causes more than 440,000 deaths annually and results in more than $75 billion in direct medical costs a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I wish they would stop trotting out this tired old bogus line of horse dung.

My thoughts exactly!

American Cancer Society Admits "Mistake" in Ad

At last, the unambiguous, unvarnished truth -- the ACS had lied in their ad.

[Mach9]

Yes--remember well when McCain trotted out these same figures, along with the notions that smoking causes PREMATURE DEATH (?) and that second-hand smoke was a carcinogen. No one bothered to tell the senator that death was either always or never "premature" and that the second-hand-smoke claim included factory- and car-emissions, smog, fog, noxious fumes from burning, etc., etc., where actual cigarette smoke failed to reach even the 1% mark. Now--we discover that second-hand cigarette smoke accounted for ZERO deaths!

Yet to rely on the "lifestyle decisions" contention seems equally contemptible. Strange how these insurance companies won't improve the health of their work forces by demanding BEHAVIOR that prevents AIDS, "premature" pregnancies, abortions, suicides, and depression.

[attiladhun2]

It is proven by the CDC that homosexuality is an unheathly lifestyle. Guess what would happen if companies fired homosexuals?

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

How much do ILLEGAL ALIENS cost the health system in this country?

[Gaffer]

I submit that the cost of keeping old people alive longer in this century will dwarf the cost of treating smokers who will die earlier. If smoking is not 'productive' in a societal sense, then I also submit the question "is keeping old people alive productive?"

My point is that at some point you have to forget about the $$ and look back to the ideals of freedom and individualism vs. the collective (socialism).