[Quix]

Yeah, and the average lifespan was what? 28 years?
= = = =

ABSOLUTELY.

But I hope you aren't expecting a warm response TO FACTS

on the denial ridden smoking threads.

[trumandogz]

Women who smoke while pregnant are doing their babies a favor by helping their developing lungs adapt to the already polluted earth environment.

[Old Professer]

In the mid 1950s in the western world, close to half the adult males were active smokers which begs the inference that the other half, along with the children were passive smokers.

Today less than 25% of adults worldwide are active smokers and, according to this report, in the U.S. over 35% are passive smokers.

If we assume these numbers to be so and we lower the active smoker rate to 10% we will still have a passive rate of nearly 30%.

This research will never end until the active rate is zero if it is the passive group we wish to protect.

[Publius6961]

Most of the people who use the word "average" in the mathematical or statistical context, have no grasp whatsoever of the concept.

A really really really really simple example for the dogmatic and reason-challenged out there:

If you take five individuals, and four of them live to be 60, and the fourth dies at childbirth, the "average" longevity of the group is 48 years. A 20% reduction in the lifespan of all the survivors. Statistically useful but not particularly informative.

We won't even get into why or how, of the ducumented 10 people who lived to over 105, 9 of them smoked until age 95.
There must be other factors involved. YA THINK?