Surgeon general urges new resolve to end smoking

Associated Press ^ | Jan 17, 2014 3:43 AM (ET) | LAURAN NEERGAARD

[DJ MacWoW]

It's no secret that smoking causes lung cancer. But what about diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction? Fifty years into the war on smoking, scientists still are adding diseases to the long list of cigarettes' harms - even as the government struggles to get more people to kick the habit.

A new report from the U.S. Surgeon General's office says the nation is at a crossroads, celebrating decades of progress against the chief preventable killer but not yet poised to finish the job.

[elkfersupper]

Why won’t they go after the real killer, alcohol? How many people are killed by drunk drivers every year? How many die of alcohol related illnesses? When you smoke, generally you aren’t hurting anyone but yourself. If you drink, you have the potential to hurt or kill an innocent family when you jump in the car to drive home from the bar.

Tried that once with disastrous consequences.

I think that fat people should be banned. They can't properly operate a vehicle, they spread their condition through peer pressure, they intrude on other people's private space,they kill or inconvenience other people in a thousand ways and they do nothing to contribute to the general health and wellbeing of the masses.

[Eric Blair 2084]

It’s no secret that smoking causes lung cancer. But what about diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction? What if it causes AIDS, herpes, ingrown toenails, Male pattern baldness, irritable bowel syndrome, menstrual cramps, Network news And everything else that is bad?

[Windflier]

They don't bother with that silly old document anymore. They just do what they want.

More people need to come to grips with that fact, and plan accordingly. We're not going to vote our way out of this, folks.

[Let_It_Be_So]

“I’d like to see the tobacco companies call the government’s
bluff...Do you think Congress would pass a law ordering them to continue selling the products?”

Nah. They would then just go into overdrive trying to find new ways to tax more things, create a V.A.T., increase the corporate tax rate, increase the capital gains tax, tax the private retirement fund accounts, slap a tax on each bottle of bottled water, etc. They haven’t reached the bottom of their list of ways to increase revenues yet..far from it.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Exactly. That is why the FDA and anti-smoking groups are so against electronic cigarettes/nicotine vaporizers.

Billions of dollars at stake and gubmint makes 10 times more money on each pack as tobacco companies.

If it is so horrible just ban the sale of cigarettes. Watch who comes out and opposes that.

[Still Thinking]

It’s no secret that smoking causes lung cancer. But what about diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction? What if it causes AIDS, herpes, ingrown toenails, Male pattern baldness, irritable bowel syndrome, menstrual cramps, Network news And everything else that is bad?

You might be on to something there. If it causes Dumbascraps, I'm against it and freedom be damned. "If it saves even one seat..."

[tuffydoodle]

“They can’t properly operate a vehicle, they spread their condition through peer pressure, they intrude on other people’s private space,they kill or inconvenience other people in a thousand ways and they do nothing to contribute to the general health and wellbeing of the masses.”

That’s the argument against smoking. I wish people would stop smoking and watch their health and weight, but it’s a free country, or used to be. I’ve been strongly against alcohol since to me, that seems to be the bigger problem. In the town I live in, a man freshly home from Afghanistan, was driving home from Walmart with his wife and baby. Baby was in a carseat in the back seat. They were hit head on by a drunk driver. Knowing some of the first responders, I found out that the family was hit so hard that the baby, still strapped in her seat, had her brains coming out of her nose. We also had a mom and her daughter killed by a drunk driver recently. I don’t think smokers or fat people are known to do that sort of damage to other people and their loved ones.

[elkfersupper]

I don’t think smokers or fat people are known to do that sort of damage to other people and their loved ones.

Sure they do.

Define "drunk".

[tuffydoodle]

If you need a definition, check Google or Webster’s.

[elkfersupper]

If you need a definition, check Google or Webster’s.

Those definitions don't matter.

The states now define it as a percentage of blood alcohol content, now extrapolated to breath alcohol content through faulty assumptions.

The last time physicians looked at the definition, they defined it as .20% blood alcohol content, then it got revised by legislation to .12%, then .10%, then .08%, and was headed to .05%, until the neo prohibitionists got it revised to "impaired to the slightest degree" by legislation.

Now, I ask you again define "drunk".

[tuffydoodle]

Google and Webster definitions don’t matter but somehow mine does? Why?

[Still Thinking]

Who the heck else is gonna ride herd on the Surgeon Colonel?

[Still Thinking]

Good point. With the Trillions already spent world wide on the “War on Drugs”, they probably could have found a cure for addiction by now.

I'm more anxiously awaiting the cure for out-of-control goobermint. Course that's a lot harder to cure than mere addiction.

[Mears]

bfl