Nimoy is incorrect to blame himself. I know several people in their 70s and 80s who have COPD and never smoked a day in their lives. In fact, many people with COPD have it as a result of lifelong, untreated asthma, or more serious conditions that their physicians thought were merely asthma, but we in fact more serious diseases.
My grandfather developed lung cancer (which mercifully, took him very quickly) 36 years after he’d quit smoking.
There is not always necessarily a cause-and-effect here.
I will pray for Mr. Nimoy. I have always enjoyed his work.