Smoking and Tobacco Use

You constantly smell like an walking ashtray. It permeates all your clothing, the interior of your cars, your house ... everything. It's very unpleasant to have a conversation with a smoker - their breath stinks and it is almost gagging to a non smoker.

For each cigarette you smoke, you have essentially removed 5 seconds of your life ... add up how many cancer nails you smoke and ... well ... that's how much less time you will live later on in life - that is, if you actually make it that far.

Smoking increases your blood pressure, too ... and eventually can cause emphysema which in turn can cause your vocal chords to be removed and then you will be talking using a throat amplifier. You can quit ... it's easier than you think.

OPINION (see facts below) There is absolutely no proven evidence that cigarette smoking alone causes cancer or that secondhand smoke causes cancer. There are more environmental issues (car exhaust, pollution of the air in general) that can cause lung cancer and not all people get lung cancer or die from smoking or pollution of the air). Some people have worked in mining (dust from coal or other type of mines can cause lung cancer) and asbestos was another cancer causing agent as well as lead paint. People don't realize that the glues and yes, even the fabrics in some new carpets can lead to cancer, allergies, etc., in SOME people. I phoned the B.C. Lung Assoc., and asked for their stats on cigarette related deaths and also stats linked to cancer. They were eager to give me the stats, but when I asked where they got their stats they said (I have it on tape) "Oh, these are just guesstimates." Not good enough! This was a prime time for "secondhand smoke" to come into the picture. Think! For years people smoked around others and there were no repercussions from this. Someone planted a seed in non-smokers minds and if the non-smokers and instead of the non-smokers looking at the whole picture and took on the total environment as a whole and spent more time on it instead of going after the smokers our environment would be almost pristine by now. Then I phoned MADD (Mother's Against Drunk Driving) and asked for their stats to related deaths due to drunk drivers and they came up with the perfect proven stats (get it from the police departments) with no nonsense. If we want a smoke-free society (will never happen in this generation) then we need to tell the truth and not give guesstimates. Is cigarette smoking good for you? No! Is drinking or over-eating good for you? No! I say, everything in moderation.

THE ABOVE IS OPINION NOT FACT (I have not edited it to avoid accusations of censorship). Please read on, then judge for yourself whether such opinions are responsible.

While I agree that everything should be taken in moderation and that we should do much more about environmental pollution, the defence of tobacco puts forward dangerously biased and wrong opinions about smoking and secondhand smoke.

There is a lot of evidence (decades worth) that smoking causes cancer and a lot of evidence that secondhand smoke is also dangerous. I have put a tiny fraction of well known research below just to emphasise this point.

In my opinion, it is irresponsible to suggest that there is NO evidence when clearly there is an overwhelming amount, all pointing to the many dangers of tobacco with regard to cancers (many types of cancer) heart disease, eye problems, joint problems, respiratory disorders, throat disorders, sudden infant death, etc etc etc

1. Doll, R. and R. Peto, Epidemiology of Cancer. Oxford Textbook of Medicine, ed. D. Warrell, et al. 2003, Oxford: OUP.
2. IARC, IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans: Tobacco smoke and involuntary smoking. . Vol. 83. 2004, Lyon: IARCPress.
3. Sasco, A., et al., Tobacco smoking and cancer: a brief review of the epidemiological evidence. Lung Cancer, 2004. 45: p. S3-S9.
4. Peto, R., et al., Mortality from smoking in developed countries, 1950-2000. . 2nd ed. 2005, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Vollset, S. E., et al., Smoking and deaths between 40 and 70 years of age in women and men. Ann Intern Med, 2006. 144(6): p. 381-9.
6. A study by the Royal College of Physicians showed that about 17,000 children in the UK are admitted to hospital every year because of illnesses caused by second-hand smoke: Royal College of Physicians, Smoking and the Young. 1992.
7. A thorough overview of the dangers is published here: Department of Health, Secondhand smoke: Review of evidence since 1998. Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health 2004.

I could cite about 200 more but stop here because I hope the point is made.

Smoking is almost universally believed to be very bad for your health. It directly contributes to cancer, heart disease, and respiratory diseases such as emphysema. If you smoke you are much more likely to die younger and more painfully than a non-smoker.

It is an expensive habit which stops you from spending your money on things like clothes, music, food, and drink.

It makes you stink: your breath, your hair, your hands, and your clothes all smell disgusting. It damages your sense of smell and taste: you cannot tell how bad you smell, you cannot appreciate nice smells like perfume and good food, and you cannot properly taste your food.

Also, the nicotine drug, makes you addicted and you can't stop. It makes you less physically active, you have so much drugs, your heart has to beat faster than usual, instead of "calming your down" as smokers say. You also might have to go through surgery and might get your tongue, jaw, or mouth taken away because of the cigarette. Smoking is proved to be the prime trigger of mouth and lung cancers. Quit now, don't put your life in Jeopardy.

Yes, I don't know anything about what they put in it except tobacco (I think) and nicotine drug (thanks 2 the last answer) which are very harmful. All I did was give my opinion and that got deleted. I'm disappointed.

NO! smoking cigarettes isn't good for you. it destroys your lungs and give you lung disease. it makes your nails and teeth go yellow and horrible.

I would recommend not to smoke!

The above answer seems very childish and it frankly reads as a knee-jerk, brain-washed reactive answer to a serious question. Here is some sane advice from a physician who once smoked and loved it, but quit several years ago after I found it became progressively harder to run my daily two miles in the morning:

For the most part, smoking is not good for your health. There are a few medical conditions which are postponed or alleviated by smoking (alzheimers disease, certain stomach dissorders, etc.. Even stress, a very serious silent killer, has been reported to be alleviated by smoking) and by the ingestion of nicotine. Yet the negative effects are greater than the few "good" things smoking can do for you. Even smoking a few cigarettes a week can cause ill effects. Smoking MAY destroy your lungs and it MAY give you emphysema, etc. You may also die from lung cancer, but not all smokers do. In fact, studies are showing that one in three people who are diagnosed as having lung cancer claim to have never smoked cigarettes. Yes, it also MAY make your nails an teeth "go yellow and horrible."

Smoking in general is quite bad for your overall health and if you don't smoke now...don't start. Many bad things will begin to happen if you start smoking. Among them are that you will lose lung capacity, not feel your best, and statistically you wil likely die 5-10 years before your time.

However...I find it appalling that the anti smoking lobby has demonized a whole set of people just because they partake in something that gives them pleasure and is far less life-threatening as alcohol or other drugs of which up to 25% of the population are addicted. Why don't you ever hear, "It seems the woman had one too many cigarettes before getting behind the wheel of her car and killing the innocent pedestrian" on the evening news? Smoking does not affect anyone but the user. Second hand smoke may smell bad, but the largest study of it's kind concluded that second hand smoke does not produce harmful effects in those who are casually subjected to it for short periods of time.

Now please don't take this the wrong way, because smoking will not make you better looking. However, many "beautiful" people who do not have "yellow teeth" or "yellow nails" smoke cigarettes: Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Sarah Jessica Parker, Elizabeth Hurley (stopped while pregnant), Kate Bosworth, Gwen Stefani, Gisele Bundchen, Sarah Michelle Geller, Scarlette Johannson, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Cameron Diaz, Whoopie Goldberg (ok...that's pushing the "beautiful" a bit far), Catherine Zeta Jones, LIsa Kudrow, Denise Richards, Darell Hannah, Natalie Portman, Charolette Church (yes, the singer), Penelope Cruz, Allisa Milano, Nicole Kidman...the list goes on and on. These people have smoked for years, some for decades, and continue to be photographed smoking in public and it really doesn't seem to affect them all too much in terms of "beauty." But the anti-smoking fascists, I mean lobbyists, want you to believe that smoking will make you ugly, when, ironically, the ugliest people I've ever encountered were adamant anti-smoking lobbyists.

The bottom line: Don't smoke. If you smoke, please consider quitting as it will most likely lead to health benefits. If you do smoke and enjoy it, go ahead and enjoy yourself; when you feel like it is negatively affecting your health, consider stopping. If you are someone who thinks smoking is the worst thing imaginable and you do your best to make those who DO smoke feel bad about themselves...get a life, stop making other people feel bad about themselves and begin to work on your own faults. It's a lot easier to take the splinter out of someone else's eye after you take the log out of your own.

Cigarette smoking is responsible for an estimated 443,000 deaths annually nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control reports the number of tobacco related deaths in the US is greater than all HIV/AIDS, illegal drug

use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined.[i] So what is stopping these deadly and addictive products from becoming illegal?

To put the number of tobacco related deaths in perspective, the CDC credits the notorious H1N1virus with a mere 3,900 deaths since the flu first appeared in the spring [ii] - a fraction of the number of deaths caused by cigarette smoking. Yet even as the government spent billions preparing for pandemic outbreaks such as H1N1, the domestic tobacco industry spent $75 billion between 2000 and 2005 on advertising and promotion.[iii] Despite killing almost half a million customers annually, the tobacco industry is so profitable that it can spend more than a billion dollars a month attracting new business.

While cigarette manufactures sicken the public, the stratospheric rise in healthcare costs is forcing states to cut crucial programs. There is a national panic over how to fund medical care for the oncoming tsunami of aging baby boomers. We can scarcely manage treating our already ailing public, let alone millions more who will need serious medical care because of years of cigarette smoking.

It seems like common sense that we make cigarettes illegal, but banning tobacco products is both politically and economically unfeasible for a number of reasons.

Tobacco is so deeply entrenched in our culture that efforts to restrict its use are viewed by much of the smoking public as assaults on personal freedom. Many argue that smoking cigarettes is a choice, despite the medical reality that cigarettes are more addictive than many illegal hard line drugs. Choice or not, once you start smoking, it is hard to stop.

Tobacco is a multi-billion dollar industry that employs tens of thousands of people at a time when unemployment is at 10%. Tobacco companies pay millions in taxes on revenue they earn, and they are top contributors to

political campaign funds. Making cigarettes illegal would be a political impossibility, since on the surface it would appear that the action would both raise unemployment and reduce tobacco tax revenues.

Even if cigarettes were illegal, we must look to our country's most famous attempt at banning a popular substance - the prohibition of alcohol - to imagine what effects a smoking ban might have. A thriving black market in cigarettes would rejuvenate organized crime rings that have been weakened in recent decades. Money that could be collected as tax on cigarette sales will instead line the pockets of criminals. In addition, our overcrowded and underfunded legal system can't possibly expand to absorb a new genera of illegal substance. We can't bear the cost of trying and jailing marijuana users, let alone cigarette smokers and smugglers.

Simply stated, the US can't afford to make cigarettes illegal. We can't afford to lose the tobacco industry, or to enforce a ban. So while our nation works to restructure its healthcare system, big tobacco will keep marketing to future patients. As for rising health care costs? The consumer will pay for it, that is if he has any money left after buying those cartons of cigarettes.

No! Its not safer at all.

REAL Answer

Yes it is safer. Has anyone ever died from second hand spit? On a survey my firm has been doing for 27 years... After smoking for 10 years 8% got a form of cancer or lung disease. After chewing for 10 years 0.25% accumulate cancer and 1% got a gum disease.

After 25 years 24% of smokers got cancer or a lung disease, and 1% of chewers got cancer, while 6% got a gum disease.

Know the facts.

studies show that 5 trilian people smoke in the world that equals out to about 80% people smoke or use tobacco

Okay I made a answers.com account just to point out how WRONG this is, but anyone who knows anything would be able to see that! 5 trilian? First: Its Trillion, two l's not one. Second: 5 Trillion? please tell me you're joking, that about 1000 times the human population. More like 2.4 Billion which is 34% of the people living on Earth. Third: If you were acctually dumb enough to write that on your paper I hope you're teacher gave you a F.

*edit* Changed wright to write.

Changed trillian to trillion.