I don't have any numbers
Enough said.....
As for smokers not being able to physically keep up with non-smokers - I know smokers that run half, and full, marathons. Not all, probably not many. It's just like anything else, some are couch potatos and some are not.
Ill take your challenge, any male, my age or older, who smokes a pack a day, and I challenge any woman, any age, who smokes a pack a day to a race for even moneyHow about bringing lots of money, all your money, to the Pikes Peak race held every August? If you dont make the cutoff, you forfeit your bet. Put your money where your mouth is.
OK, you want facts and figures? You got 'em.
More than 17,000 of those "premature deaths" occur in people over 85 years of age; nearly 200,000 deaths assigned as "smoking related" occur from ages 75-85; more than 115,000 are in the 65-75 age range.
And since there are NO death certificates that list the cause of death as "smoking", where do they get their figures? (hint) THEY MAKE THEM UP!
As for the 157 billion - if you're going to do a cost/ benefit analysis you need to look at the costs AND the benefits not just the costs.
On the other hand, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service report "Cigarette Taxes to Fund Health Care Reform and Economic Analysis." (CRS, Library of Congress, #94214 E ) DID take all those things into account, and found that smokers, even as far back as 1994, paid into the system far more than they ever take out.
Or, you could take a look here, The "Social Costs" of Smoking.
OR, maybe it's the difference between warm and cold economics.
"Cold" economists say that a person who dies upon retirement[the Rooseveltian ideal] saves the Federal purse and private pension plans the costs of Social Security benefits and retirement annuities. Warm economists say that this is not the kind of calculation that a civilized society engages in. (From: HOUSE TESTIMONY )
I don't remember making a challenge. Could you point me to the post where I made a physical challenge to anyone.
I didn't say that I ran half, or full, marathons. I said that I know smokers that do. If YOU would care to challenge them I'll contact them and tell them to FReepmail you.
I keep myself in decent physical shape but nowhere near competition shape.
I work out with weights about 4 hours a week and run about a mile twice a week.
That's to keep my weight down not to make up for my smoking.
What is it? I've never heard of it.
But if you want this female smoker to mess with you running - you will be the one coming to the east coast. NO ONE - and I mean NO ONE - ever tells me where I go or what I do.
BTW - I run every day - and smoke at least a pack a day.
Using the CDC's own numbers, what percentage of those "premature" deaths occurred after age 85? Do you know? How about the "premature" deaths that occurred after age 75? Hint: More than 70,000 after 85, nearly 200,000 after 75--hardly what most people would consider "premature." Do you have any idea how the CDC came up with that figure or do you just "assume" since they say it, it's carved in stone?
As for smokers as athletes, you may not remember, but before the current hype and hysteria, a much larger percentage of the population smoked, and many of those smokers were athletes. Some of them set records that have only recently been broken. I can't speak for marathons--never appealed to me to run for the sake of running--but I know many tennis players and other athletes who smoke and do quite well. You have swallowed the anti rhetoric hook, line and sinker, but if it makes you happy to be ignorant of the facts, knock yourself out.