New research shows that cigarette smoke causes damage in minutes.

[stubby2]

http://smokles.wordpress.com/2011/01...tting-smoking/

A sensible article above.

I fondly remember my father giving me 2 quarters when I was about 6 or so and telling me to pick up a few packs of Camel straights for him at the corner grocer. The salesperson never even flinched when I reached up and slapped the coins on the counter. Grabbed the smokes, dropped them off at pops and went out to play (we actually played outside in those days. Mindlessly ran around, ate some dirt just to see what it tasted like and all that good stuff).

Then there where the car trips with pops smoking a big ol' stogy with the windows up.

I'm a gonna die for sure

[muddyfunkstar]

I agree. My parents smoked 2-3 packs a day, in the apartment, and even blew smoke in our faces routinely.

Same here. When I was a kid I was surrounded by smokers - my parents, most of my extended family. They smoked in the house, in the car, everything. I think it was inevitable that I ended up a smoker. When they found out I smoked, they just let me smoke openly in the house, and that was that. I went from a few crafty cigs here and there to a pack a day over night.

Even as a committed snusser, I still smoke now and again, but I would never ever dream of smoking around my kid. God bless snus

[CoderGuy]

It's amazing how times have changed. When I hear stories from the 60s for instance everyone has a cig in their mouth, even doctors while they were doing their exams. Some friends of mine talk about the office environment back when everyone had a cigarette in an ashtray on their desk. They said if you didn't smoke, you did anyway when you walked into any indoors location and the place was filled with smoke (remember smoking on airplanes?). Having quit smoking with snus I can't stand breathing in 2nd hand smoke now so I really gotta hand it to the non-smokers of days gone by with what they put up with.

[muddyfunkstar]

Some friends of mine talk about the office environment back when everyone had a cigarette in an ashtray on their desk.

I remember my first office-based summer job, we could smoke at our desks. This was around 1989/90. Looking back, I feel sorry for the non-smokers, but as a (then) smoker who grew up in a smoke-filled house, it just seemed normal.

I still remember the smoking room at my first proper job. At lunchtime when you went in and opened the door, it was like walking into fog, and even the most hardened smokers winced.

The next place I worked didn't have a smoking room, you had to go outside, and I remember at the time thinking how uncivilised that was! Madness.

[Tregs]

I don't smoke and as much as I am against it, I think a lot of the health articles are bogus. I know old guys in their 90s (and a few even in their 100s) who have been smoking their whole life without any problems. I read an article the other day that said no kidding "one cigarette can kill you according to the Surgeon General". I know many smokers and many people who have cancer, but out of all the poeple I know who have cancer not one was a smoker (or smokeless tobacco user) and all the tobacco users are completely healthy.
I think the government just likes to pick on tobacco (mostly for tax purposes).
You should not smoke and if you do switch to smokeless tobacco, but at the same time a lot of the smoking propaganda is just bogus and meant to give excuses for tax raises.

[precious007]

Mindlessly ran around, ate some dirt just to see what it tasted like and all that good stuff).

Hahaha

We used to do that when we were little kids, pretty weird lol

[CultLeaderLettuce]

It's amazing how times have changed. When I hear stories from the 60s for instance everyone has a cig in their mouth, even doctors while they were doing their exams. Some friends of mine talk about the office environment back when everyone had a cigarette in an ashtray on their desk. They said if you didn't smoke, you did anyway when you walked into any indoors location and the place was filled with smoke (remember smoking on airplanes?). Having quit smoking with snus I can't stand breathing in 2nd hand smoke now so I really gotta hand it to the non-smokers of days gone by with what they put up with.

My grandfather told me of the days in the 50's and 60's when he'd go to business conventions, or even in the office, when it would basically be a smoke filled room. What I really want to know is this: if second hand smoke is really as harmful as anti-tobacco activists say it is, why didn't the majority of non-smokers who lived back then drop dead from lung cancer in the 70's or 80's?

[GoVegan]

My grandfather told me of the days in the 50's and 60's when he'd go to business conventions, or even in the office, when it would basically be a smoke filled room. What I really want to know is this: if second hand smoke is really as harmful as anti-tobacco activists say it is, why didn't the majority of non-smokers who lived back then drop dead from lung cancer in the 70's or 80's?

That's what I have wondered as well. I mean people used to smoke everywhere. Restaurants, bars and even hospitals.

[toddzilla]

That's what I have wondered as well. I mean people used to smoke everywhere. Restaurants, bars and even hospitals.

I haven't researched this much, but its my understanding that back in those days cigarettes weren't packed full with all the chemical shit they are today. They still caused harm due to filling your lungs full of smoke, but not as much as they do today.

[CoderGuy]

I haven't researched this much, but its my understanding that back in those days cigarettes weren't packed full with all the chemical shit they are today. They still caused harm due to filling your lungs full of smoke, but not as much as they do today.

You're probably correct. Now they are so toxic just looking at them causes cataracts and birds to fly upsidedown.

If 2nd hand smoke is so deadly what about all us 60s kids that grew up in smoke filled homes, then started smoking heavily at a young age? Why is it that we are not dead? I had my lungs checked about 6 months ago (x-rays, oxygen levels, blood test) and was told "good thing you stopped when you did, no damage done, so as long as you don't go back to smoking you should be OK". So raised in a smoke filled home, 2-3 packs a day for 26 years, but no damage, yet one second exposed to 2nd hand smoke could kill you lol

Seriously though, according to statistics something like 500k people die each year from smoking, compared to like 85k for car accidents. If that's true, why do I see car accident fatalities every night on the news but not once have they showed "Another smoking related death, news at 11"

[toddzilla]

You're probably correct. Now they are so toxic just looking at them causes cataracts and birds to fly upsidedown.

If 2nd hand smoke is so deadly what about all us 60s kids that grew up in smoke filled homes, then started smoking heavily at a young age? Why is it that we are not dead? I had my lungs checked about 6 months ago (x-rays, oxygen levels, blood test) and was told "good thing you stopped when you did, no damage done, so as long as you don't go back to smoking you should be OK". So raised in a smoke filled home, 2-3 packs a day for 26 years, but no damage, yet one second exposed to 2nd hand smoke could kill you lol

Seriously though, according to statistics something like 500k people die each year from smoking, compared to like 85k for car accidents. If that's true, why do I see car accident fatalities every night on the news but not once have they showed "Another smoking related death, news at 11"

500k a year? sounds like anti-tobacco lobbyists beefed up that statistic a little

[CoderGuy]

500k a year? sounds like anti-tobacco lobbyists beefed up that statistic a little

Sorry, rounded up, it's only 443k

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_stat...ted_mortality/

[toddzilla]

Sorry, rounded up, it's only 443k

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_stat...ted_mortality/

even so, that still sounds a bit crazy

[GoVegan]

even so, that still sounds a bit crazy

Who knows how they come up with that? If you smoked 20 years ago and have a heart attack, they will probably blame the heart attack on smoking.

[muddyfunkstar]

You're probably correct. Now they are so toxic just looking at them causes cataracts and birds to fly upsidedown.

If 2nd hand smoke is so deadly what about all us 60s kids that grew up in smoke filled homes, then started smoking heavily at a young age? Why is it that we are not dead? I had my lungs checked about 6 months ago (x-rays, oxygen levels, blood test) and was told "good thing you stopped when you did, no damage done, so as long as you don't go back to smoking you should be OK". So raised in a smoke filled home, 2-3 packs a day for 26 years, but no damage, yet one second exposed to 2nd hand smoke could kill you lol

Seriously though, according to statistics something like 500k people die each year from smoking, compared to like 85k for car accidents. If that's true, why do I see car accident fatalities every night on the news but not once have they showed "Another smoking related death, news at 11"

This is exactly why the scaremongering tactics don't work, and why new smokers start every day. I think we all agree that cigs are bad for us, and no-one will deny the various diseases that they can cause; but to be told categorically that smoking will give you lung cancer is as nonsensical as saying that anyone who eats red meat will get bowel cancer.