Do You Smoke Or Use Tobacco Products?

[gb2000ie]

I am not even sure one could get those numbers at all, because too many what-ifs are involved and it is impossible to know whether an illness is caused by smoking or would have happened anyway and how much smoking shortened the live. Even the exact health risks of smoking are kind of blurry as too many environmental factors play into it.

It would require a longitudinal study taking 50+ years. You would need to follow a statistically significant population of non-smokers, some-time smokers (they did, then they quit), and smokers who never quit from the age people start smoking, until they die.

You would then see if the average cost of the three groups is markedly different.

I guess you could do it by looking back in time through medical records, but it would involve getting a lot of permissions from a lot of families, and be a lot of work!

But it sounds plausible, as healthy people die of the same causes, just ten or twenty years later.

But, crucially, not at the same rate! Yes, non-smkokers get lung cancer, but not at the same rate. Yes, non-smokers get emphysema, but not at the same rate.

A smaller proportion of smokers die in their beds of old age compared to the population as a whole. And, conversely, a larger proportion die after long battles with nasty diseases like cancers and lung disease involving many surgeries and much hospital care.

I can see arguments both ways on this one - I think we can't know until someone does the science.

So I guess it depends on how much the productivity decreases before that point, which is even more difficult to find out. The only thing we can be sure about is that people cost money when they die and that they die. All of them, even the healthiest.

But not all deaths cost the same. (hey, isn't this a fun and uplifting topic!)

That is the idea behind the EU smoking ban guideline. The workers in restaurants and bars have to be protected (just like industrial workers are protected from that kind of workplace hazards). So banning smoking in enclosed spaces has nothing to do with interfering it people's choices but is meant to protect other people's rights.

Yup.

I'm still in shock that IRELAND, IRELAND of all places, was first to do this.

It's actually transformed the country. Before the smoking ban, there were no terraces outside pubs. Everyone drank inside all the time. MAYBE on one or two hot days someone would bring out a chair and sit outside, but on the whole, the culture was not one of terraces and beer gardens.

Post-somking ban, just about every pub has a place to sit out and drink in the open air.

I'm not a smoker, but I love being able to sit out in the sun and chat to friends away from all the loud music indoors!

B.

 

[gb2000ie]

I do not smoke myself, but I do have a smoking fetish. I find it quite sexy when some one else smokes. As a Bi male, I find both Women and Men smokers sexy. Especially during sex.

I love how different we humans all are.

I'm married to a former smoker, and he was still a smoker when we met. That left me with the inverse of a smoking fetish. Nothing turns me off faster than a cigarette!

B.

 

[Shelter]

I do not smoke myself, but I do have a smoking fetish. I find it quite sexy when some one else smokes. As a Bi male, I find both Women and Men smokers sexy. Especially during sex.

Honestly - during sex???????????

 

[HustleMe15]

I'm Smoking Hot!

Smoking is a nasty habit, and it trashes the planet. I have nothing against the people who DO smoke, but I hate when they smoke in non-smoking areas that I'm in. I can't stand it when they flick the butt on the ground rather that putting it in trash can, or ash tray. The friends that I have that smoke know I better not see them flick their butt, or they will be picking it up again.

 

[CUBBYJR1]

Nope

 

[Rebel7]

I used to, though moderately but i've quit...
I was at a bar last weekend and eventually smoked passively...meh. A nice looking guy came over asking for a lighter, sent him to a friend puffing at the lounge. I watched him light the cig and i almost choked on my drink cuz...he was lighting at the filter! )

 

[pinklee1]

NOPE

 

[Sinnerr]

I have quit 2 years ago after some 7 years of being daily smoker. My physical condition had improved rapidly since then...

 

[tonka]

I've never been a smoker (except for pot), but many of my friends were smokers in my younger days.
The vibe in America has really changed. In my day, the cool kids smoked. Now, the cool kids would never smoke.
Partly its the health issue. Smart kids think its just stupid. Partly its the sex issue. Tobacco breath is a red line. Smell like mint. not Marlboro.

It's a good change. It's a habit without any value. Yes, James Dean looked cool with a butt hanging from his mouth. He would have looked cool anyway.

 

[RefixnarcisM]

Never. Didn't understand either why some people risk their health by sucking that mini vehicle exhaust.

 

[W!nston]

Never. Didn't understand either why some people risk their health by sucking that mini vehicle exhaust.

Until I was 24 years old I was so against smoking or any tobacco use. Being from a somewhat rural area full of farms, dairies, chicken and hog farms and the like a lot of people used chewing tobacco or snuff.

When I was 24 I worked with a group of 11 other guys roughly my age. We worked hard outdoors most of the day but we had laboratory duties as well. It was a water treatment plant and the pay was high because the job was hard.

There were acres and acres of lawns to keep cut, trimmed, weed-eaters and leaf blowers. So every day we spent hours doing that in between testing and adjusting the influent and effluent.

We were a team and grew very close. After work we went to a local bar for a few pitchers of ice cold draft beer to cool off. While sitting at that round table joking around and drinking beer everyone else would smoke. I wanted to be one of the 'guys' so I asked Dave Metzger (built stud with black hair and green eyes) if I could try one of his Benson & Hedges Menthols. That was when I started smoking. It was peer pressure and wanting to fit in with my friends.

So before any judgments are made about how it starts think about that.

I quit the day my mother moved to greener pastures just over 6 years ago. I wish I had managed to do it while she was still here but that's life

 

[platinumblk2]

I am a smoker although it is getting more and more taboo

 

[RefixnarcisM]

^^so your point by quoting my opinion and judgment me by being judgmental lol
I think trying to fit in into some situation by being not yourself is... not truthful to yourself. If they your friends, they wouldn't care if you not drinking or smoking like them. Do you try to fit in into heterosexual community by denying or hiding your homosexuality? By not being yourself.

 

[intowner]

i assume that having a brother try to get you to inhale a cig doesn't count if that was the first and last time to try it

 

[W!nston]

Peer pressure can be powerful That was the reason I quoted your comment. You said:

Didn't understand either why some people risk their health by sucking that mini vehicle exhaust

You said you didn't understand the 'why' of it. I tried to shed some light on the subject for you. Your characterization of smoking as 'sucking on a mini vehicle exhaust' seemed a little bit on the condescending side IMHO hence my judgmental' remark

In the interval between the time I borrowed that first Benson & Hedges Menthol 100 from that deliciously manly man and the time I decided to quit smoking once and for all (I had quit for about 2 years back in the early 90s) smoking had gone from an innocent experiment to a full blown addiction for me.

I'm glad you never sucbed to the habit/addiction. I hope smoking will someday become extinct

 

[W!nston]

i assume that having a brother try to get you to inhale a cig doesn't count if that was the first and last time to try it

:rofl:

No, I don't think that counts as using tobacco

:cheers:

 

[Stonecold]

I use e cigs and vape cinnamon, I smoked for many years when young then quit for like 30 years but to help loose weight I went to vaping and once again got back to a normal weight. I quit 28 years ago for my life partner and he doesn't mind the vaping. I really like the fact they don't stink and now being a senior I don't have to worry about burning the house down.

 

[larrywar]

You might call me a "veteran" smoker, since I've been at it non-stop for 60 years. Man, the social climate has changed since I was 15 !! Back then, you weren't cool at all UNLESS you smoked. Today, you're a "nicotine outlaw," subject to ever-increasing taxes that no one's ever going to veto. It is a different world,
that's fer sure !

 

[Shelter]

You might call me a "veteran" smoker, since I've been at it non-stop for 60 years. Man, the social climate has changed since I was 15 !! Back then, you weren't cool at all UNLESS you smoked. Today, you're a "nicotine outlaw," subject to ever-increasing taxes that no one's ever going to veto. It is a different world,
that's fer sure !

Larrywar I think you will be totally right with your remark about the taxes. X_X
I'm a non smoker and I know that cigarettes and so on are harmful. But you are right - everyone slavers against smoking but no one that the state is earning many Billions of Euros or Dollars or whatever with smoking!

 

[junkjunk550]

do not

nope