Correct. It was the other persons who treated my loss as an insignificant anecdote.
When I read your post about your relatives I said a prayer for the repose of their souls and another to them.
Thank you. That fact was omitted from your posts. I likewise felt a loss when I heard of the passing of SheLion's husband. He served his country well and provided for his wife and kids. I appreciate first hand what happens when a husband and father dies prematurely.
However, anecdotes are not scientific evidence. They are valid information for comparison, don't you agree?
There was a direct cause and effect in the deaths of my family members. That's not an anecdote. It is another hard check mark in the death column for smoking caused congestive heart failure and emphysema. You may try to impugn the integrity of government sponsored research, but I knew both of these people personally. They aren't just some imaginary, faceless references in a report.
The same type of circumstances you describe where someone didn't die should be given the same wieght? Shouldn't it?
Not necesssarily. To make a definitive statement you would need to know how many people smoked over a lifetime and how many of those died from smoking related illness vs "old age". The current "junk science" tallies of death attributed to smoking number about 400,000 annually. I would like to see the companion tally of the number of smokers who died of "old age" to make a valid, weighted evaluation.
I hope that all of you are lucky enough to fall under the "old age" designation.
I can't point you to the study, right now, that will give you the "companion tally" but if memory serves me correctly, only 1/3 of smokers ever have ANY smoking related illnesses. The other 2/3 don't get ANY smoking related illnesses whatsoever.
That is NOT saying the all 1/3 that have a smoking related illness die from the illness. Just that they have an illness related to smoking.
BTW, very classless comment on SheLion and MaineRebel. Having seen other comments from you, I'm hoping that was just a momentary loss of identity.
Not necesssarily. To make a definitive statement you would need to know how many people smoked over a lifetime and how many of those died from smoking related illness vs "old age". The current "junk science" tallies of death attributed to smoking number about 400,000 annually. I would like to see the companion tally of the number of smokers who died of "old age" to make a valid, weighted evaluation.
That 400,000 number from the CDC is supposedly "premature" deaths attributable to smoking. But one must decide just exactly what is the definition of "premature"?????
Eight of the ten oldest human beings were smokers, and strangely enough, eight of the top ten healthiest countries also have the most smokers, according to the CDC's DALE study...but just as interesting is the breakdown of the ages at which The "premature" deaths of smokers occur.
Of those 400,000 smokers who supposedly die prematurely every year, 17% of them are more than 85 years old! Forty-five percent are more than 75, and nearly 60% are more than 70 years old. Tobacco-related deaths occur at an average age of roughly 72. By comparison car accidents, suicide, and homicide kill nearly 97,000 people annually at the average age of 39.
Which average age is the most "premature" 72 or 39???
I don't have the citation at hand at the moment, but I believe the difference in average age of death between smokers and non-smokers is something like 10 months.