I find that interesting, since I know an awful lot of long time smokers. If smokers were dying off in record numbers like we are told, why haven't I seeen any?
I can't argue that smoking is good for me. I'm not that silly. But I don't think it's near as bad as some would like us to believe. Someday, I may even quit smoking. The rebel in me, however, generally does the exact opposite of what government and society tries to dictate I do.
My mother thought like you also.
She is having a third of her right lung removed and her lymph glands taken out. She is a life long smoker. I have always begged her to stop. When I was young my brother and I were wheezy asthmatic children, but once we left the home we were fine.
So my mother is in advanced stages of smoking related lung cancer at 61 because cigarettes were more important than her health or her family's.