The risks of smoking are greatly exaggerated

TheRecord.com ^ | 20 November 2002 | ERIC BOYD

[SheLion]

If we continue down this dangerous path of control and prohibition based on an unreliable or remote chance of harm, how many personal freedoms will remain seven generations from now?

[SheLion]

[AppyPappy]

I would be tempted to believe this if I didn't know so many people who were destroyed by smoking and saved by stopping.

[metesky]

Destroyed? Not slowed down, but utterly destroyed?

I'm glad I don't travel in your circles, what with the constant inconvenience of stepping over the bodies of the destroyed.

How does one come back from destruction, by the by? Or were you using hyperbole to make a point?

[netmilsmom]

But if those people had never smoked, would they have found another cause for their ailments?? This is the question. I worked for a doctor. They can only diagnose by deduction. We give them a set of symptoms, they find the common denominator. Smoking was so big with the WWII generation, it is easy to blame it for all ailments. My dad quit smoking in the 60's. He had smoked about 10 years. In the 80's he came up with heart disease. Guess what they blamed it on. SMOKING! No one took into account his high stress job, lack of significant exercise or high fat diet (well known in the 50's and 60's). Here's another. When my sister quit smoking after 5 years, she ended up with horrid breathing problems, my niece who never smoked has sleep apnea. Has this become the catch all of our society? And explain my grandfather who smoked since he was 12 and is still going strong at 82??

[Deep_6]

re:
"..if I didn't know so many people who were destroyed by smoking.."

My mother died of lung cancer after almost 70 years of smoking
three to four packs per day. She started when she was in her teens.

My father (still alive) smoked the same amount [nearly] as long, plus
inhaled her "second hand smoke for their entire marriage (and until her
death). He suffers from no lung ailments.

People "are destroyed" from their own neglect; from inherited
deficiencies and weaknesses, or diseases. Banning smoking in a public
place to thwart a nuisance situation should be left to the proprietor
of the business, not the legislative body.

 

[blackdog]

My wife, who is a chemist, is damn tired of BS science being used by advocacy groups and an enabling media who asks for no relevant facts, data, or sources to the table, just scary claims, shocking accusations, and WAG'd numbers.

If 4000 chemicals are present in cigarette smoke, how many are present in the baseline air used? How many chemicals are present in the air while sitting at your computer?

I am no great fan of smoking. The only dog I have in this fight is the one that demands sound science. If I were a cigarette company, I would be suing these advocacy groups for false claims. What do they have to lose? They are already the villain in the first place.

This all started when Crest claimed "Three out of four dentists recommend Crest" back in the 60's. Well, three out of four lousy journalists who can kiss my A$$ would prefer I use Charmin(over using no toilet paper at all).

[borisbob69]

Great post!

The problem with the majority of scientific studies (on smoking and any other currently PC taboo topic) is: the people conducting them start with their findings in mind prior to conducting their research. Once you know what you want to prove...the rest is easy!

[Judith Anne]

This is a wonderful post. Nice work, SheLion! ;-D

[Dr. Luv]

"The risks of smoking are greatly exaggerated. So are the costs."

Sigh. Tell that to all the folks in my waiting room....

[eccentric]

NBC had a report Monday night of a non-smoker who got lung-cancer. Never in the entire story did they mention RADON.

[Rain-maker]

Just be glad all the smokers don't quit en masse, or the already overbudgeted US economy would collapse from huge a shortfall in tax dollars.

Hyprocrites one and all: they whine about 2nd hand smoke, but are glad to squeeze the tobacco industry cow for all the milk they can get for their special interest crap.

[Ditter]

This article really set me straight too. I thought all those people in my family died as a result of smoking but thanks to SheLion I now know they died from eating too much sole. (I'm series!) ;9/

[AppyPappy]

Dead. As a pipe cleaner.

[SheLion]

Destroyed? Not slowed down, but utterly destroyed?

Totally mind-boggling! My goodness. With talk like this, who needs the anti's! They have pulled the wool over more eyes then we thought.

[SheLion]

When my sister quit smoking after 5 years, she ended up with horrid breathing problems, my niece who never smoked has sleep apnea. Has this become the catch all of our society? And explain my grandfather who smoked since he was 12 and is still going strong at 82??

And "they" told us that if we stop smoking, within two years, our lungs will be a pink and shiny. Yes, right!

My Grandmother smoked three packs of unfiltered Camels and lived to be 86 year's old. Died from old age.

I always ask: if smoking is SO dangerous, why is it still a legal commodity? But we all know the answer to that one. MONEY! It's no worse then alcohol! Except to the prissy noses that can't stand the smell!

[SheLion]

People "are destroyed" from their own neglect; from inherited deficiencies and weaknesses, or diseases. Banning smoking in a public place to thwart a nuisance situation should be left to the proprietor of the business, not the legislative body.

Your so right. If a person is an avid couch potato, that alone will take him to an early grave. Then you add obesity, and a drinker, and we can even throw "a smoker" into this mix, and what do you have: a VERY unhealthy person.

We have sports professional's who smoke. It doesn't stop them! It's like anything else: if you exercise and eat right, being a smoker is not going to kill you.

[AppyPappy]

Tobacco contains nicotine. That's poison enough. Smelling cigarette smoke will not hurt you. Being around copious amounts probably will. There is a balance there. The government has no business regulating it unless it harms kids. A woman who would rather smoke than see her child healthy is an abomination. I took one of these kids to the morgue once.

I smoked for 10 years. I know what cigarettes can do. I love cigars and I love pipes. But a cigarette is a nasty little instrument used merely to deliver death and disease to its user.

[muir_redwoods]

This is pretty easy to clear up. If you think tobacco is no more dangerous than onions or carrots try eating a few ounces of tobaco and write back if you recover.

Tobacco is not only dangerous in it basic form, but the delivery vector, setting it on fire and inhaling the fumes, is dangerous in its own right.

You certainly have the right to smoke and I fondly wish you well. Personally, I've spent too much time with my wife in oncology facilities in the last five years to willingly engage in any activity that increased my risk even slightly.

I'm going to assume you're too grown up to be offended or impressed by scare stories but unless you've been there, you wouldn't believe how bad it can be.

[SheLion]

If I were a cigarette company, I would be suing these advocacy groups for false claims. What do they have to lose? They are already the villain in the first place.

I often wonder this myself. But Big Tobacco fell to their knees in front of the Attorney Generals and now there isn't much Big T can do to defend themselves.

But the junk science put forth by the anti-smoking health groups is getting way out of hand, and the general public believes it.