Have you ever bought life insurance? What's one of the first questions they ask you? That's right - it's "DO YOU SMOKE?" In fact, they ask you if you're a smoker before they even ask you if you hang glide or if you're a private pilot. Haven't you ever wondered why that is? It's not because the insurance companies just want to get additional premiums from smokers. It's because smokers die at a younger age than their non-smoking friends. This may not occur in all cases, so smokers will always be able to cite examples of people like the old woman who smoked a pack a day from the time she was 20 and lived to be 102 with no health problems, but the insurance mortality tables are EXTREMELY accurate for the population as a whole. There is no argument here - except from smokers who can't face the reality that they are killing themselves.