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What they neglect to point out is that 6849 (or more) people die every day in this country. If 1200 of them are smokers, that leaves a whole hell of a lot of nonsmokers dropping like flies of something else...

Oh, yeah, 228 of those 1200 are more than 85 years old, and 480 are more than 75.

This figure is part of the CDC's SAMMEC computer program estimates. It would be far more honest if they would simply admit that they assume (this is the basis for SAMMEC) that since approximately 2-3/4 million people die every year in this country and approximately 25% of them smoke, and since half of all smokers will die of "smoking-related" disease, then voila! 1200 deaths a day due to smoking.