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OK I tried to take that last comment back but it would not let me. Sorry about that, that was unfair and I apologize.
But can you not acknowledge the accounts from the doctor's office where every ailment to a smoker is blamed on smoking even though it may not necessarily be true? It was the same point I made earlier and the reason I question your study data. I'm not just "thinking" randomly, I'm simply using common sense. And common sense should tell us that heart attacks happen to non-smokers too therefore it's not fair to assume that every smoker who had a heart attack dies because of smoking. yet that is exactly how it is reported in your studies. He could have had a family history, poor diet, any number of other factors. This is why I am questioning your data, common sense tells me that they are not always telling the accurate story. The stigma of smoking exists everywhere, especially in the medical community.
Common sense also tells me that many of these studies are publically funded. I won't go so far as to say they are purposely distorting the numbers to gain additional funding but I will say using data to fit their agenda and as a result continue their funding is also not out of the question either. We both know that you can make stats say a lot of different things if you want them to.
Last edited by DaveinMtAiry; 11-01-2016 at 01:13 PM..
I quit smoking at age 31. I spent most of the decade in my 20's unsuccessfully trying to quit. It's massively addictive. I was a social drinker in the bars on weekends and I'd fall off the wagon when everyone around me had a lit cigarette. As it became tougher and tougher to smoke with cigarettes banned in the workplace and banned in restaurants, it became easier to go many hours and then days without tobacco.
I don't get why this thread is contentious at all. The data is beyond refute. Smokers have all kinds of smoking-related health problems that non-smokers have at much lower frequency. It doesn't mean that a smoker is going to die of one of those but it dramatically increases the probability. It's brutal trying to quit something so addictive so I completely understand why people still continue to smoke in the face of all the data.
I quit smoking at age 31. I spent most of the decade in my 20's unsuccessfully trying to quit. It's massively addictive. I was a social drinker in the bars on weekends and I'd fall off the wagon when everyone around me had a lit cigarette. As it became tougher and tougher to smoke with cigarettes banned in the workplace and banned in restaurants, it became easier to go many hours and then days without tobacco.
I don't get why this thread is contentious at all. The data is beyond refute. Smokers have all kinds of smoking-related health problems that non-smokers have at much lower frequency. It doesn't mean that a smoker is going to die of one of those but it dramatically increases the probability. It's brutal trying to quit something so addictive so I completely understand why people still continue to smoke in the face of all the data.
Without reading however god-knows many pages this thread is, will speak to the above and OP.
My location is Seattle, WA. Smoking is banned indoors at most businesses, with very few exceptions. Pot is legal, within certain guidelines.
I personally do not see tons of outdoor smoking or pot use, except among bar crowds and street people for the most part. Went to a hippie-fest other weekend, in Tonasket WA, with lots of pot smoking by people who are very harmless...and I "listened" quite closely to my personal vibe on these folks. I don't automatically now connect Pot = very harmless, but was mildly surprised how pleasant these folks were...from the inside. I was with a family circle including some of the festival's founders. Life is trippy that way, open your mind it's surprising who you'll meet.
Smoking is socially not very acceptable in professional circles. Less so every year. Ten years ago I had a young person who smoked work for me, and a few others at the company. Now, very few in an office of hundreds sneak out for smoke breaks. In fact I only knew one, a guy about 30. I "think" smoking has been managed right out of most young professional people these days, by and large. Ten years from now, it may be close to extinct. This is not a bad thing, in my opinion, though I think it will always be around. Always.
I sneak some cigarettes once in awhile, about monthly. That is my "habit"...which isn't. So I never truly quit when I smoked regularly in college, thirty years ago nearly. That is drags me down physically is absolutely, positively beyond personal-refute: i can feel it in my lungs and a little general malaise after about half a pack over several days. Enough on that, the armchair doctor types can argue it in rest of thread.
So yes, to quoted, I "sometimes" smoke in the face of the data, because it is enjoyable. Really enjoyable and soothing. It relieves stress. I have few other vices, and none illegal (didn't smoke ganja with the hippies, that's not my thing either) nor do I drink. And yes, living in places where it is 1) mostly illegal and 2) socially less-that-acceptable ...sure helps one to quit, or cut down. I lived in CA in the 1990s when it was on the way out, which frankly helped me to wean off it too though I've always had that once-a-month or so thing going on. For decades.
To OP, Seattle would thus be a great place to not have to deal with it, if you don't want to.
Some folks just secretly feel they are non-average and statistics don’t apply to them. They somehow feel like they have a special place in the universe and that makes a real difference in their circumstances. Statistics are extraordinary dull numbers students study in colleges but they are amazing when it comes to predicting the future.
Some folks just secretly feel they are non-average and statistics don’t apply to them. They somehow feel like they have a special place in the universe and that makes a real difference in their circumstances. Statistics are extraordinary dull numbers students study in colleges but they are amazing when it comes to predicting the future.
This is nonsense and I never took this approach to smokers. And again I am not a smoker. I have simply been saying the dire results of smoking that are commonly believed are a bit overblown. We had one poster here say very clearly that if you smoke you will die younger as a result of smoking. This declarative statement is simply not true. Many smokers live long lives, many die of causes completely unrelated to smoking.
By pointing his out I am in no way trying to convince anyone to beat the odds and continue smoking or that smoking is not dangerous. Big difference in these positions.
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