[SheLion]

If we continue down this dangerous path of control and prohibition based on an unreliable or remote chance of harm, how many personal freedoms will remain seven generations from now?

[SheLion]

[AppyPappy]

I would be tempted to believe this if I didn't know so many people who were destroyed by smoking and saved by stopping.

[netmilsmom]

But if those people had never smoked, would they have found another cause for their ailments?? This is the question. I worked for a doctor. They can only diagnose by deduction. We give them a set of symptoms, they find the common denominator. Smoking was so big with the WWII generation, it is easy to blame it for all ailments. My dad quit smoking in the 60's. He had smoked about 10 years. In the 80's he came up with heart disease. Guess what they blamed it on. SMOKING! No one took into account his high stress job, lack of significant exercise or high fat diet (well known in the 50's and 60's). Here's another. When my sister quit smoking after 5 years, she ended up with horrid breathing problems, my niece who never smoked has sleep apnea. Has this become the catch all of our society? And explain my grandfather who smoked since he was 12 and is still going strong at 82??

[Judith Anne]

This is a wonderful post. Nice work, SheLion! ;-D

[Dr. Luv]

"The risks of smoking are greatly exaggerated. So are the costs."

Sigh. Tell that to all the folks in my waiting room....

[Rain-maker]

Just be glad all the smokers don't quit en masse, or the already overbudgeted US economy would collapse from huge a shortfall in tax dollars.

Hyprocrites one and all: they whine about 2nd hand smoke, but are glad to squeeze the tobacco industry cow for all the milk they can get for their special interest crap.

[muir_redwoods]

This is pretty easy to clear up. If you think tobacco is no more dangerous than onions or carrots try eating a few ounces of tobaco and write back if you recover.

Tobacco is not only dangerous in it basic form, but the delivery vector, setting it on fire and inhaling the fumes, is dangerous in its own right.

You certainly have the right to smoke and I fondly wish you well. Personally, I've spent too much time with my wife in oncology facilities in the last five years to willingly engage in any activity that increased my risk even slightly.

I'm going to assume you're too grown up to be offended or impressed by scare stories but unless you've been there, you wouldn't believe how bad it can be.

[Blood of Tyrants]

To reach these estimated danger levels, the cigarettes must be smoked simultaneously and completely in a sealed 20-square-foot room with a nine-foot ceiling.

I was in that room at a bar once.

[A Vast RightWing Conspirator]

I am a former 2-pack smoker who quit more than 10 yrs. ago so, I have some sympathy for smokers. Quitting was a personal decision to me - I simply decided that there is more for me to enjoy in a longer, disease-free life. In other words, the pleasure that smoking gave me was not worth the future pain caused by smoke-related diseases and the shorter life.

Anyway, what I want to say is that I accept smokers' right to smoke as much as they want. I also do not want to smell or inhale the by-products of their activities. If you come to think of it, no one wants to smell or inhale other people 'gas', right? So... I'm for smokers' right to enjoy themselves for as long as they do it 'discretely'. After all, no one should deny other people's right to fart as much as they want. In the privacy of their home or in specially-designated public spaces, such as restrooms.

[Cacique]

bump for later read

[A. Pole]

This unreasonable exploitation of the ever-present risks of living infiltrates our schools to indoctrinate trusting and eager minds with the irrational fears of today.

Maybe to turn attention away from the real risks?

[BornOnTheFourth]

The risks of smoking are greatly exaggerated.

Tell that to my daughter who lost her grandfather to smoking last year. My father was 60 years old when lung cancer destroyed his lungs and took his life.

[HIDEK6]

To reach these estimated danger levels, the cigarettes must be smoked simultaneously and completely in a sealed 20-square-foot room with a nine-foot ceiling.

Can you even FIT a million cigarettes into a 20' x 20' x 9' room?

Let's see.

It will require a 2" diameter x 6" area for each cigarette to be lit and smoked, assuming the smoking machine is invisible. volume required = pi * 1^2 x 6 = 18.85 in^3. Multiply x 1,000,000 = 18,850,000 cu. in. required to smoke 1,000,000 cigarettes.

volume of room in cubic inches = 240 * 240 * 108 = 6,220,800.

OK, so I'm practicing engineering without a license.

It looks to me that it is physically impossible to generate enough carcinogen to get cancer.

[1Old Pro]

Last night one of the left wing nightly news shows were scaring people saying second hand smoke was a dedly killer and basically they were saying if you've even seen someone smoking you'll probably soon die.

It was incredible.

[Crawdad]

Would all of the obese (and you know who you are) anti-smokers please shut-up?

[verity]

You are definitely working exhaustively to justify your addiction.

[TankerKC]

... how many personal freedoms will remain seven generations from now?

How dare you ask a question like that. Now you must submit your papers and a blood sample!

[HamiltonJay]

Inhilation v Injestion... apples and oranges.

[Jim Noble]

>>If we continue down this dangerous path of control and prohibition based on an unreliable or remote chance of harm, how many personal freedoms will remain seven generations from now? <<

The self-evident truth of this proposition has nothing-nothing to do with the dangers of smoking tobacco which are real and if anything are understated.

If you smoke, and you are a freeper-I hope you quit.

[Argh]

None. And it'll be sooner that seven generations. Thank you, Miss She.