Should cigarettes be banned?

[armoured saint]

Quote from Daxtrader:

I don't understand the comparison between cigs and cheeseburgers. I love big macs and french fries with cheese on them. I'm perfectly healthy and very athletic. Can the same be said for a smoker? No. You people have black lungs.

I can't say for sure but I bet there is no more than 1 death annually resulting from someone else's eating habits. A fat obese mother dies while feasting on cheese fries and cannot take care of her infant child, resulting in the infant's death. Compare this with second hand smoke.

Cheeseburgers are high in artery clogging saturated fat. Fries also have trans fats, which are about TEN TIMES WORSE than sat fats. As if that isn't bad enough neither have any nutritional value to speak of.

You may be athletic (for now) but you're not healthy eating this junk food.

 

[macal425]

Quote from Daxtrader:

I don't understand the comparison between cigs and cheeseburgers. I love big macs and french fries with cheese on them. I'm perfectly healthy and very athletic. Can the same be said for a smoker? No. You people have black lungs.

I don't understand the comparison between cigs and cheeseburgers either. I've smoked for 30 years. I'm perfectly healthy and very athletic. Can the same be said for an overeater. No. You people have clogged arteries.

 

[armoured saint]

Quote from macal425:

I don't understand the comparison between cigs and cheeseburgers either. I've smoked for 30 years. I'm perfectly healthy and very athletic. Can the same be said for an overeater. No. You people have clogged arteries.

so, are you saying smoking is not harmful and that it's all a sham..

or are you saying you, in particular, are immune from the ill-effects of smoking?


what's your point?

 

[nutmeg]

Point is: people are dropping like flies from 2nd hand smoke yet smokers can out run a fat kid.

 

[Thunderdog]

Quote from macal425:

...I've smoked for 30 years. I'm perfectly healthy...

Um, if you say so...

It's not only relative to others, but to yourself as well. Think how much healthier you might have been had you not ingested such toxins for 3 decades. Toxins that have specifically been associated with premature aging. Just because you may have been dealt a good hand genetically does not necessarily mean that you should play a loose game. Whatever.

 

[macal425]

Quote from armoured saint:

so, are you saying smoking is not harmful and that it's all a sham..

or are you saying you, in particular, are immune from the ill-effects of smoking?


what's your point?

Point was to show how ridiculous the statement from Dax re: cheeseburgers is. Now, he may be one of the lucky ones and indeed be able to eat burgers on a regular basis with absolutely no adverse long term effects, but to imply that cigs can't be compared to junk food because he happens to think he is fit on a diet of burgers is just plain dumb. As is my sometimes smoking habit.

 

[nutmeg]

Think how much healthier you might have been had you not ingested such toxins for 3 decades.

-----------------

This is symptomatic of the "there ya go" diagnosis that is prevalent in the medical community.

"Doc, My hearings not too good."

"You smoke?"

"Yes"

"There ya go."

----------------------

"Doc, I have a reoccuring ingrown toenail"

"You smoke?"

"Yes"

"There ya go"

 

[Thunderdog]

Quote from nutmeg:

Think how much healthier you might have been had you not ingested such toxins for 3 decades.

-----------------

This is symptomatic of the "there ya go" diagnosis that is prevalent in the medical community.

"Doc, My hearings not too good."

"You smoke?"

"Yes"

"There ya go."

----------------------

"Doc, I have a reoccuring ingrown toenail"

"You smoke?"

"Yes"

"There ya go"

Only a smoker could make such an argument against in-your-face scientific evidence. My father was an otherwise intelligent man who, unfortunately, shared your views. Let's hope you live longer.

P.S. Aside from tobacco's addictive nature, I think one of the reasons that some long-time smokers cannot admit to the harmful effects of smoking is that they would then have to come to terms with the incredible sabotage against their own bodies that they engaged in for so long, unwittingly or otherwise. (Think of it as a bad trade that they allowed to continue and now cannot bring themselves to close, and all the attendant thoughts and feelings that go with it.) It is amazing what people can choose to deny when it suits them, however intelligent they may otherwise be. Really.

 

[tomahawk]

Quote from macal425:

... I've smoked for 30 years. I'm perfectly healthy and very athletic.

Friend, I offer this as perspective, not to be a jerk or anything ...

My mother smoked for maybe 25 years. She quit sometime in the late 80's, early 90's. Otherwise was very active and healthy.

In fall of '05 they found a single tiny bb-sized tumor on her lung, and in Jan '06 they removed 1/3 of that lung just to be sure. She was fine for about 7 months after that - scans all clear and everything. Then in Aug '06 all of a sudden it was everywhere.

In fall '06 she had some radiation and chemo, but it was really too late by then. By Christmas she could barely walk because of a tumor encroahing on her spinal chord. Unfortunately she died on Easter (just under a year ago). That last month or so was not pretty ... morphine helps alot with pain, but it also really fucks up a few other things.

Some of the things I saw during that time I would not wish on my worst enemy - seriously. Please do yourself a favor and quit smoking TODAY, and encourage anyone else you know who smokes to quit immediately as well. ... Thanks.

 

[macal425]

Quote from tomahawk:

Friend, I offer this as perspective, not to be a jerk or anything ...

My mother smoked for maybe 25 years. She quit sometime in the late 80's, early 90's. Otherwise was very active and healthy.

In fall of '05 they found a single tiny bb-sized tumor on her lung, and in Jan '06 they removed 1/3 of that lung just to be sure. She was fine for about 7 months after that - scans all clear and everything. Then in Aug '06 all of a sudden it was everywhere.

In fall '06 she had some radiation and chemo, but it was really too late by then. By Christmas she could barely walk because of a tumor encroahing on her spinal chord. Unfortunately she died on Easter (just under a year ago). That last month or so was not pretty ... morphine helps alot with pain, but it also really fucks up a few other things.

Some of the things I saw during that time I would not wish on my worst enemy - seriously. Please do yourself a favor and quit smoking TODAY, and encourage anyone else you know who smokes to quit immediately as well. ... Thanks.

Tomahawk, sorry to hear of your loss. I too lost a parent, at a very young age, due to the effects of smoking.
It seems that my attempts at sarcasm at Dax's original post went over a few peoples heads. First of all, although I started smoking 30 years ago, my smoking habit has been off and on for the last 15 years. I'll smoke for a few weeks, stop for 6+_mths, have a moment of weakness and start again for a few weeks. Rinse and repeat. I do consider myself relatively healthy since I exercise hard at least 6 times a week and have a very healthy diet. Of course I am aware that I will never reach peak health/fitness while I continue to struggle and give into my habit and that I'm opening myself up to other diseases that I cannot hold off with diet/exercise. As I inferred earlier, the point of that post was not to say "I'm a heavy smoker that is very healthy" but to show how ridiculous it would be to say "I'm a heavy smoker (substitute "burger and fries w/cheese") that is very healthy"
Thanks for your concern though, and your story will only serve to help me finally quit this dumb habit completely, once and for all. (then perhaps I can enjoy a burger and fries )