So I went to Walmart today and look what I found...

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Both of my kids (now adults, one in his 40's, the other in her 30's) were servers, and as Mama J I got to know some of their fellow workers and heard stories. Their experience was pretty much the flip side of yours.

It is location and time specific, I think - the lunch servers tend to be the 'lifers' in service industry and there are a lot more smokers there. The dinner servers tend to be the students/short-timers and have fewer smokers. The all-night places (Magnolia, Kerby Lane, Katzs) had a LOT of smokers, but it was almost clannish - the non-smokers would quit and go elsewhere, the atmosphere (literally and figuratively) was so bad.

Edit:
Various stats from the CDC. The 'chicken or the egg' is always a viable question, of course, when trying to interpret.
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_sta...king/index.htm

Age-wise 'smokers' (smoke regularly) are slanted toward the older up until 65+

About 10 of every 100 adults aged 18–24 years (10.4%)
About 16 of every 100 adults aged 25–44 years (16.1%)
Nearly 17 of every 100 adults aged 45–64 years (16.5%)
About 8 of every 100 adults aged 65 years and older (8.2%)

The 65+ decline is, at least partly, due to the significantly higher mortality rate (10-13 years, on average, less than a non-smoker).

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by rangergrit

Thus the taste.

I really did lmao.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

It is location and time specific, I think - the lunch servers tend to be the 'lifers' in service industry and there are a lot more smokers there. The dinner servers tend to be the students/short-timers and have fewer smokers. The all-night places (Magnolia, Kerby Lane, Katzs) had a LOT of smokers, but it was almost clannish - the non-smokers would quit and go elsewhere, the atmosphere (literally and figuratively) was so bad.

Edit:
Various stats from the CDC. The 'chicken or the egg' is always a viable question, of course, when trying to interpret.
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_sta...king/index.htm

Age-wise 'smokers' (smoke regularly) are slanted toward the older up until 65+


The 65+ decline is, at least partly, due to the significantly higher mortality rate (10-13 years, on average, less than a non-smoker).

My daughter worked lunch and in a place that did not serve alcohol. My son worked the dinner shift.



My mother-in-law was a chain smoker for at least 50 years that we know of. As in, light a cigarette before getting out of bed in the morning and have the last one before going to sleep at night chain smoker. When she was older she had breast cancer surgery. Due to her history, her doctor told her that he absolutely expected to find that he would have to do something to her lungs, as well, when he was in there. When she woke up, he was standing by her bed, looking a bit embarrassed. Seems she had the pinkest lungs he'd seen in some time. This was before the study that discovered the link between lung cancer and a specific gene that, smoker or not, exposed to second hand smoker or not, meant you were 20% more likely to get lung cancer than someone without the gene. (This when a physician finally asked the forbidden question, if 20% of smokers get lung cancer, why do 80% of smokers NOT get lung cancer, and that was finally studied.) The true value of this study, of course, was that it was another window into what causes cancer and how can we prevent it, but it was interesting in that it was a question that, for some reason, no one had ever asked because it didn't fit into what we "knew", which is that OF COURSE smoking is the cause of lung cancer.

The more we think we know, the less we are likely to ask the questions that will get us more knowledge.



I don't smoke, by the way - it disagrees with me personally. Learned that 50 years ago in college while sharing an apartment with 3 chain smokers and deciding, during exam time, if I was ever going to try it that was likely the best time.


My original point, however, was that there was a compromise crafted that worked for both those who smoked and those who didn't, and the ones who didn't simply could not bear that the ones who did had options that they didn't approve of.

[Trainwreck20]

Oh, not disagreeing with the fact that some people were trying to get rid of smoking entirely based on their position regarding smoking.

As to you the MIL anecdote, though, not sure what the point is - men who smoke are 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer. Women are 13 times more likely, compared to non-smokers. Only 10-15 percent of lung cancer occurs in non-smokers, with the remaining 85-90 percent occurring in former or current smokers - even though less than 15% of the population smokes. It is, without a doubt, the number one cause of lung cancer by at least an order of magnitude, with radon in second place.

I really don't care if a person smokes, just not in my air-space. Although the cost to taxpayers (most smokers end up on medicare/medicaid) is enormous - somewhere around 100 billion annually - so maybe I should

[Digger 68]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

The plastic bag ban was ruled unconstitutional about 10 months ago. Target switched back to plastic bags a while ago.

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/07...-court-ruling/

Interesting, even in Maryland I have not seen a ban on bags. I am in my local Target all the time. I can bike to it in 4 minutes.

People need to stop throwing trash around, and recycle! But you know how that goes.

[Digger 68]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Oh, not disagreeing with the fact that some people were trying to get rid of smoking entirely based on their position regarding smoking.

As to you the MIL anecdote, though, not sure what the point is - men who smoke are 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer. Women are 13 times more likely, compared to non-smokers. Only 10-15 percent of lung cancer occurs in non-smokers, with the remaining 85-90 percent occurring in former or current smokers - even though less than 15% of the population smokes. It is, without a doubt, the number one cause of lung cancer by at least an order of magnitude, with radon in second place.

I really don't care if a person smokes, just not in my air-space. Although the cost to taxpayers (most smokers end up on medicare/medicaid) is enormous - somewhere around 100 billion annually - so maybe I should

My grandmother who I loved very much when I was a child died when I was 12, she was 59. Pall Mall Golds where the nails in her coffin.

I would always try to get her not to smoke. And two years after she died what did I start doing.......

I gave up smoking over 20 years ago.....

Pink lungs and chain smokers.....