Do you smoke?

[cannedheat]

You can meet some very interesting people on doorsteps, indulging in what I am quite sure is now widely seen as a disgusting habit.

My best 'catch' was at a transport event a few years back, when I spent ten minutes in pleasant conversation with Oscar winning actress and then Transport Minister, Glenda Jackson.

And during the Falmer Public Inquiry, I got quite pally over the weeks with Charlie Hopkins, lawyer for Falmer Parish Council and fellow Newport County supporter.

I have also spoken to people who smoked on doorsteps, they all had two things in common, they stank and they are now dead.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Oily rags are great, although I only partake with a beer. The trade off is dry lines around the eyes, show me a packet with the warning 'SMOKING CAN CAUSE A SLOW, PAINFUL AND PREMATURE DEATH' and I'll happily smoke away, but show me one with the warning 'SMOKING CAUSES PREMATURE AGEING OF THE SKIN' and I'll think twice before sparking up. Vanity over a painful death anyday

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

I have also spoken to people who smoked on doorsteps, they all had two things in common, they stank and they are now dead.

I'm not interested in getting into the whole smoker/non-smoker debate, but that statement is a bit of an odd one. So these people you spoke to in doorways, you kept in touch with each one of them and know that they are now all dead? Or was it just an anti-smoker comment for the sake of it?

 

[cannedheat]

I'm not interested in getting into the whole smoker/non-smoker debate, but that statement is a bit of an odd one. So these people you spoke to in doorways, you kept in touch with each one of them and know that they are now all dead? Or was it just an anti-smoker comment for the sake of it?

Out patients.

 

[Gully]

...at the Oncology department.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

People are getting into an area of discussion that takes the argument about giving up smoking (or not starting) absolutely nowhere.

"If you smoke, you'll be dead by the time you are fifty" - WRONG
"All smokers contract lung cancer" - WRONG

This leads on to ...

"Anti-smoking arguments are wrong" - QUITE OFTEN

"I'm going to ignore all this and start smoking" - QUITE POSSIBLE


I'd be the last to encourage anyone to take it up. But the exaggerated arguments of some people really don't frighten people off the weed very effectively.

 

[NMH]

I have known a couple of people with emphysema, and even the remote chance that smoking might give you that, should be enough to put people off lighting up.

It's really a horrible sight, and particularly for their family and friends. Depending on an oxygen bottle and mask, tentatively breathing towards a death sentence with every wheeze.
I have a feeling the medical profession try just that little bit less, for someone who has brought their own demise upon themselves by smoking cigarettes.

 

[che]

No I have never smoked

 

[The Merry Prankster]

My best 'catch' was at a transport event a few years back, when I spent ten minutes in pleasant conversation with Oscar winning actress and then Transport Minister, Glenda Jackson.
supporter.

This is insufficient incentive to start smoking again.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

But the exaggerated arguments of some people really don't frighten people off the weed very effectively.

My parents were so rabidly anti-smoking that I honestly think if I'd come home and said I was a heroin addict they'd have just been relieved that I hadn't said I'd taken up smoking. In the end their words and anti-smoking advice did nothing to discourage me from becoming a social smoker. That said, I am repeating history to a degree with my own eleven year old, who has no idea that I smoke and I would hate her to ever find out (no she doesn't read NSC!)

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

They say if you smoke 20 a day all your adult life, 50 odd years it takes 6 years off your life. that is possible but so does being a fat bastard and eating badly, so does drinking to excess, so does taking drugs recreationally or due to addiction, so does being stressed or in a stressful job, so does being a coach potato, so does being teetotal

In reality statistically a 20 a day smoker who is not a fat bastard ,eats healthily and takes exercise will outlive an overweight, non smoking teetotaller 9 times out of 10.

So you can make statistics say anything you want.

Smoking does not mean you will die before 70, you will get cancer, not at all. Many people who get cancer and die have never smoked in their lives.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

They say if you smoke 20 a day all your adult life, 50 odd years it takes 6 years off your life. that is possible but so does being a fat bastard and eating badly, so does drinking to excess, so does taking drugs recreationally or due to addiction, so does being stressed or in a stressful job, so does being a coach potato, so does being teetotal

In reality statistically a 20 a day smoker who is not a fat bastard ,eats healthily and takes exercise will outlive an overweight, non smoking teetotaller 9 times out of 10.

So you can make statistics say anything you want.

Smoking does not mean you will die before 70, you will get cancer, not at all. Many people who get cancer and die have never smoked in their lives.

Actuaries are quite interesting people.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I get a bit of asthma, so don't smoke cos it seems a tad dumb putting more crap into my lungs than I need to.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Now smoking is banned everywhere so smokers have to stand in the street or do it in their own home away from society I say ENOUGH now. The health Nazi's have got their own way. As long as its legal just allow people to smoke if they want to without any more persecution and I would say that whether I was a smoker or a non smoker.

If not I am going to start my PFBN party and stand in the doorways of MCDonalds with a scale and anyone who is over 25 BMI will be harranged and abused and lectured on how much they will cost the NHS as they get older. Anyone want to join ?.

Persecute
Fat
Bastards
Now

 

[The Merry Prankster]

Now smoking is banned everywhere so smokers have to stand in the street or do it in their own home away from society I say ENOUGH now. The health Nazi's have got their own way. As long as its legal just allow people to smoke if they want to without any more persecution and I would say that whether I was a smoker or a non smoker.

If not I am going to start my PFBN party and stand in the doorways of MCDonalds with a scale and anyone who is over 25 BMI will be harranged and abused and lectured on how much they will cost the NHS as they get older. Anyone want to join ?.

Persecute
Fat
Bastards
Now

Fat Bastards (generally) don't force you to share their burger.

 

[cjd]

Fat Bastards (generally) don't force you to share their burger.

This is true............but "Fat bastards" will generally "eat up" more of the NHS funding through their lifestyle ill-health, so that will, effect non "Fat Bastrards" access to health care. Do "Fat Bastards" pay additional taxes on the level that smokers do....?

 

[Gully]

...fair comment, but like cigarettes they could have a severe impact on you health if you tried to share!

 

[cjd]

...fair comment, but like cigarettes they could have a severe impact on you health if you tried to share!

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Fat Bastards (generally) don't force you to share their burger.

That's because all Fat Bastards are SELFISH!

 

[NMH]

They say if you smoke 20 a day all your adult life, 50 odd years it takes 6 years off your life. that is possible but so does being a fat bastard and eating badly, so does drinking to excess, so does taking drugs recreationally or due to addiction, so does being stressed or in a stressful job, so does being a coach potato, so does being teetotal

In reality statistically a 20 a day smoker who is not a fat bastard ,eats healthily and takes exercise will outlive an overweight, non smoking teetotaller 9 times out of 10.

So you can make statistics say anything you want.

Smoking does not mean you will die before 70, you will get cancer, not at all. Many people who get cancer and die have never smoked in their lives.

Shooting yourself in the head usually takes several years off your life, and joining the armed forces has general inherent risks, and so it goes on. So many things can screw your life up, and most of them are actually legal (like smoking is).

Health warnings are made so you know risks about that particular habit or passtime, and comparing smoking or being overweight or taking drugs still doesn't minimise the risk or discredit the warnings about each one.
Statistics 'they' say - like "smoking may harm/kill/take years off your life" - still stand as true as before, so I fail to see how your statement actually means anything in this discussion.

Lord B is right in pointing out that direct statements of fact encouraged by statistics are normally going to be wrong and misleading, but ignoring warnings and being encouraged to keep smoking by misreading them or bending them to suit yourself (as a smoker) is actually just thick.
Therefore, encourage thick people to smoke themselves to death amongst themselves, and it's a great method for culling the stupid from our species.