Why is the smoking age 19 (and not 18)? (2015, to buy)

[elcajones]

Originally Posted by RayinAK

Most kids start smoking, chewing, and the rest among their friends. Besides that, there is a pretty good chance that children of smoking parents who are bothered by the smoke... later in life will dislike anything relating to smoking.

Actually, I started smoking at 14. To this day I still think I was already addicted to nicotine before I started due to my heavy smoking parents. People can go both ways. Guess it depends on if your parents have you lighting cig's on the stove for them or not in childhood LOL.

[NomadicBear]

My question is "why do people even start smoking given the knowledge we now have of the major health ramifications from doing so?" Many doctors say there is no worse thing you can do to your body. The number of chemicals in cigarettes is shocking. Even more shocking is watching somebody die from it.

[jdhpa]

Originally Posted by NomadicBear

My question is "why do people even start smoking given the knowledge we now have of the major health ramifications from doing so?" Many doctors say there is no worse thing you can do to your body. The number of chemicals in cigarettes is shocking. Even more shocking is watching somebody die from it.

Immediate gratification vs delayed gratification. Same as drinking heavily, using drugs, etc.:

Delayed gratification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I grew up in a home with cigarette smoking (have never smoked myself). It didn't bother me at the time. But after being away from home for a couple of years, even a slight whiff of cigarette smoke gave me an immediate throbbing headache, and still does. If everyone was fortunate enough to have that reaction there would be a lot less smoking

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by NomadicBear

My question is "why do people even start smoking given the knowledge we now have of the major health ramifications from doing so?" Many doctors say there is no worse thing you can do to your body. The number of chemicals in cigarettes is shocking. Even more shocking is watching somebody die from it.

Good question. Long ago when I was a child there was no Internet nor countless of medical or scientific studies relating to alcohol, tobacco smoke, and drug use. The generations of today have all of that at their disposal, and still smoke, drink, and use drugs. Most, however, begin using at an early age.

But lets say that tobacco smoke is bad for your health. Then how about wood, pot, metal, and other kinds of smoke? While some of us complain about tobacco smoking, we turn around and inhale other smokes

The bottomline is that today young people learn the same bad habits that we learned yesterday.

[Music_Man]

And pot smokers inhale deeper so the effect on the lungs is worse than cigarettes smoking.

[motownewave]

1964 was when the US surgeon general officially decided cigarettes killed, and 1971 was when cigarette commercials in America were banned, but it wasn't until at least the 80's sometime that smoking really started to go out of fashion... perhaps because a generation of smokers had died in the period between 1964 (or 1971, take your pick) and 1980-something?

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by motownewave

1964 was when the US surgeon general officially decided cigarettes killed, and 1971 was when cigarette commercials in America were banned, but it wasn't until at least the 80's sometime that smoking really started to go out of fashion... perhaps because a generation of smokers had died in the period between 1964 (or 1971, take your pick) and 1980-something?

Who knows? Back in the days during WWII and after, a great number of soldiers smoked. Some died in the war, while others died of old age. Perhaps it's not necessarily smoke that kills people, but cancers, cardiovascular decease, and so on. Excessive smoking probably increases the chance of getting cancer and other maladies, but it's not the main reason. If smoke was like radon (you don't even know it's there), then people would not complain about smokers. That said, you have children and adults who don't smoke dying of cancers and other deceases each day.

Something else: my father in law is around 91 years old. He does not smoke nor drink, and each morning breakfast consists of a couple of fried eggs and bacon, plus lots of coffee the rest of the day. The medical community has been telling people that eggs are bad for us, and so bacon. Go figure...

[Metlakatla]

Don't quit your day job to become a doctor, Ray. Smoking is a main reason for cancer and "other maladies," not just something that may increase chances...

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, accounting for more than 480,000 deaths every year, or 1 of every 5 deaths.
More than 16 million Americans live with a smoking-related disease.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_stat...a/cig_smoking/

[grandma4mom5]

I had a boyfriend whose father died from lung cancer decades ago. He didn't smoke, but that was back in the day when people smoked in offices, and he was around a bunch of smokers. My father chewed/smoked cigars, my first boyfriend smoked cigs & pot, some friends did too. I tried it, but just wasn't into it. Smoking stinks and makes food taste different. I hated coming home smelling like a bar. And that was back when cigs were 75c a pack. The people I hung out with didn't care either way if you smoked or not, some smoked & some didn't. Same thing with alcohol. My dad took me to bars because that is where he hung out. I saw a lot, and I chose not to raise my kids that way.

[wall st kid]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

A more important question is "Why do people start smoking at all?"

Stupidity.