Posted on 01/27/2014 8:46:10 PM PST by chessplayer
Eric Lawson, who portrayed the rugged Marlboro man in cigarette ads during the late 1970s, has died. He was 72.
A smoker since age 14, Lawson later appeared in an anti-smoking commercial that parodied the Marlboro man and an “Entertainment Tonight” segment to discuss the negative effects of smoking. Susan said her husband was proud of the interview, even though he was smoking at the time and continued the habit until he was diagnosed with COPD.
“He knew the cigarettes had a hold on him,” she said. “He knew, yet he still couldn’t stop.”
A few actors and models who pitched Marlboro brand cigarettes have died of smoking-related diseases. They include David Millar, who died of emphysema in 1987, and David McLean, who died of lung cancer in 1995.
(Excerpt) Read more at healthdailydigest.com ...
Some of the posters on this thread have commented on the fact this guy lived beyond the normal life expectancy for males. I’m not trying to be harsh, but this is a quality of life issue too. You smoke for fifty years, your final days aren’t going to be quality days.
COPD, hauling around an oxygen tank, coughing up a lung...
I’m not here to stop anyone from smoking. If folks want to, that’s okay with me. You do realize you push insurance rates up for yourself. This costs your family. Your decline hurts the ones you love. They’d like to have a healthy you around for another decade.
Please don’t make comments that serve to mitigate the negative health problems associated with smoking.
The thing is that life expectancy at birth factors in quality of medical care and health standards at the time you are born, as health care is always improving your life expectancy will continue to go up as you age.
For anyone who is trying to quit or encouraging someone to quit, the e-cig is the best thing to come down the pike in a long time. I have known several long term heavy smokers that have switched to the e-cig and enjoy it, and one quit the e-cig and is now nicotine free.
I would rather sleep in the woods in a hollow log than stay you and let you treat me like a dog.
Who’s footing the bill?
According to the social security administration actuarial chart for 2009, the average additional years a male of 72 would live was another 12.72 years, for an average lifespan of 84.72 years.
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4c6.html
I smoked up until 4 years ago when Freeper Dearolddad told me about his success with hypnotherapy. My wife and I made a booking with a psychologist who did this and have not had a smoke since! My heartfelt thanks to him as i no longer wake up coughing my lungs up every morning!
Mel
That’s true. I do believe that the average when you die is what you should be held up against.
Thanks Luke.
Well, in some instances the rates for the entire insurance pool rise due to a smoker’s elevated medical needs.
In some instances the smoker will have to pay elevated rates for insurance, health, life, et al.
This usually depends on whether the smoker can slip on on a group plan, or has to find insurance on his own.
I’m not sure if there is a medical test for group plans these days. There may be, and I’m not aware of it.
Smoking has become a very big deal. I know of some policies that ask if you have ever smoked in your life. They even want to know if you haven’t smoke in decades.
If they can't squeeze enough out of current or past smokers, they'll start asking if you've ever been in a bar that allowed smoking, or passed someone on the street who was smoking. Even seeing someone smoke in a movie or on TV is enough to justify jacking your rates up a few hundred/month... it's just that dangerous you know.
I don’t have an answer for you. I think that’s one way to look at it. I don’t think that’s the only way to look at it.
It does seem reasonable for an insurance company to look at their broad body of insureds, and take notice of which groups are costing them consistently higher outlays.
It may seem to you like the insurance company is unfair. On the other hand, non-smokers may think the insurance company would be unfair, if they didn’t look at who costs them more, and make them pay more for their policies.
Should non-smokers pick up a part of the cost of smoker’s elevated needs?
I’ll be honest, I haven’t read reports on the heath needs of people who smoked many years prior. It had been my understanding that after quitting, a person’s risk reduced considerably over time, and almost returned to normal. That may be somewhat of a myth though.
Perhaps instances of cancers in patients who smoked many years ago, are more prevalent. I’m not sure.
Just to be clear, I think the anti-smoking hysteria is way out of control. You can’t even go outside to smoke in some instances. Good freakin’ grief.
I’ve notice that focus groups go absolutely nuts at times, and I think the anti-smoking hysteria-naughts are excellent examples.
72 years old. Average life expectancy for US males 75.7.
Pass me a pack of Pall Malls.
I’ll be voting Republican ‘till the day I die. Then I suppose I’ll be voting Democrat.
Smoke em if you got em! Lungs that is!! That’s a joke son, I say that’s a joke!!
I have seen people take a drag from their cigarette thru their Stoma.....freakky
I have never understood the appeal of cigarettes. At age 12 my cousin and I got a supply of them, various brands. I thought they were horrible. He, on the other hand, liked them. I last saw this cousin 20 years ago and he was still puffing. Probably dead now.
My stepfather died at age 56 of lung cancer. He, too, started smoking at that age.
I should add that my grandfather, also a heavy smoker, died of emphysema at age 59. That is one of the most horrible ways to go, gasping for every breath. He finally ended it by taking rat poison. Ghastly but fairly quick.
Yes, smoking is great.
Everyone in my family in my parents generation 1911/1980 died from smoking related diseases. Only one from actual lung cancer the rest from COPD. It was awful watching them struggle to breathe.
Hey I as born in 1940 too! I plan on being here for quite a while, see you around!
Good grief, at 72 a scratch on the arm can kill some people.
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