Why am I not dead?
Smoking hits the news again.
According to the BBC, they are thinking about introducing a £10 [€15] licence to buy tobacco in the U.K.
The Anti-Smoking Fascists are at it again.
What is this obsession with smoking? Why are governments dedicated to eradicating this lethal habit? What is so wrong about it that it has to be eradicated from the face of the earth like it were the Ebola Virus?
I read a very interesting document recently, and I would urge you to read it too, particularly if you are a smoker or an Anti-Smoking Fascist. It is an Adobe document and is quite long but is worth reading in its entirety.
My father smoked cigarettes all his life. He was a forty or more a day man. He died many years ago, having reached his normal life expectancy.
My mother was married to this smoker for thirty seven years and was a passive smoker for all that time. She died in her eighties.
I was a passive smoker for the first sixteen years of my life. Then I started on cigarettes but switched to a pipe because I preferred it.
I have been smoking ever since.
Now this is not a rhetorical question. This is not a facetious question. This is a serious question.
If smoking is such a deadly killer, and passive smoking is so lethal…..
Why am I still alive?
I think there is no doubting that cigarettes are bad. I smoke between 30 and 40 cigarettes a day as too did my father who died at the age of 47 from a heart attack.
I think it’s just the luck of the draw if a smoker manages to make it to an average life expectancy.
The key issue is that I choose to smoke. It is my choice and if other people don’t like it then it’s tough luck for them. I’m well aware of the risks. I will not smoke around non smokers and I’m happy to nip outside for a fag while at the pub.
What more do they want?
OK, Robert, they are bad. But how bad?
People die of varying things at varying ages, and it’s always convenient to blame cigarettes. One friend of mine died in his forties of cancer, never having smoked or drank in his life [or significantly been in a smoking environment]. Did he die of a smoking related disease?
I’m just tired of smokers being picked on because they are an easy target and it’s ‘politically correct’ to do so. As for what more do they want? They want to see us suffer because it makes them feel morally superior. Why else would they give a damn what we do with our lives?
My Father died at 79 from complications stemming from Diabetes. He never smoked a day in his life but he loved his candy bars. My Mother smoked 1.5 to 2 packs a day for over 40 years. She passed at 84.
So my question, like yours’, is which should be outlawed, candy or cigarettes?
I say, neither!!!
To me it’s the whining socalists who think they, the annointed few, know what’s best for us the many.
Some people just beat the odds Grandad. You know that well.
Brian – Amen, Brother!
Why not ban the car? Alcohol? Insecticides? Chemicals of any nature? Electricity? Life? They can all lead to fatalities.
TT – But that’s the point. What are the odds? They throw up vague figures like ‘smokers die X years younger’ [X is dependent on how anti-smoking you are]. If smoking were that unhealthy, we should be dying after only a year or two at it, but we all know that that isn’t the case. The ‘odds’ as you call them are heavily stacked in favour of the non-smoking argument, and are, quite frankly, meaningless.
Basically one in three non smokers die of cancer, two in three smokers die of cancer. I have been hearing this “unfortunate” argument all my life. “My Dad smoked 60 a day all his life and lived to be 110.” Thus,somehow, negating all the overwhelming statistical evidence. By the way I am a smoker; but I am not in denial.
TT – I’m not in denial. I’m just trying to put up a counterargument. I just can’t understand smokers being the target all the time. Why not drinkers? I don’t know about the states, but drinking does immeasurably more damage to the individual and society. When you take in account street fights, murders, drunk driving, spouse abuse, poverty, unwanted pregnancies, rape and so on. And that’s before you even start to talk about the damage it does to the body!!
I’m with TT – the statistics are quite clear that smoking drastically increases the risk of a huge range of diseases. You’re just lucky, is all. I agree with banning smoking in public places because of the risk to non-smokers. There’s no such risk with alcohol, since nobody dies from the effects of alcohol fumes. But even though I’m a socialist I wouldn’t want to ban smoking outright, it should be allowed to consenting adults in private. Likewise I wouldn’t want to ban alcohol consumption, even though as you say it does even more damage.
Grandad, I’m guessing that the right genes are running through your family tree, the ones that are immune to the effect of smoking that cause trouble for others. Same as some folks have issues with alcohol and other dont. I reckon smoking is picked on coz its a lot safer than, say, going after the drug barons or the publicans. Am I making sense??
I agree with the sentiments you have just expressed. To a point. I mean; would you agree that it is reasonable to ban smoking on an airplane or in a theater? When it gets to a park or a bus shelter or a pub, I am with you. However, the point of my original comment was simply to answer your question. “Why am I not dead?” You are one of the lucky ones. Simple as that. Look at it this way. If you have some people who walk in the middle o Oh, fuck it Barnsley just knocked Liverpool out. That’s the missus in a foul mood. There goes my weekend. Have a nice one old man.
I’ve been asthmatic since I was five, I never much liked very smoky environments, but the ban has brought the smokers out onto the street, where every passer by gets a whiff. I don’t understand why specified rooms were unacceptable – provided drinkers brought their own glasses to the bar.
SEANATHAIR ?
Ow! Don’t all shout at once 😮
I agree that a non-smoker is a healthier individual than a smoker. You only have to hear a smoker’s cough to see that. To say that I am ‘lucky’ though implies that statistically, I should be dead. I don’t think that statistics will bear that out. Otherwise the graveyards would be full of thirty, fourty and fifty year olds?
With regard to passive smoking/drinking… The risks of passive smoking are greatly exaggerated, and are all part of the mass hysteria surrounding the debate. I agree with Ian that asthmatics would suffer and I completely agree there. To the vast majority, passive smoking is a nuisance, and that is all. I agree that no one ever died from inhaling alcohol fumes from another person BUT [and that is a huge BUT], how many people die on a weekly [daily] basis because someone else has too much drink taken? Count the street fights. Count the road accidents. In that sense, ‘passive’ driking is much more immediately lethal than cigarette smoking.
I am not against drinking. I would be horrified at any suggestion of banning it. What I am for is reasonable action. Outright banning of smoking in all enclosed spaces [and even some open air places] smacks of a witch-hunt. Smokers are being hounded, not because of health risks, but because of arbitrary figures that governments have set to reduce smoking in the populations in the future.
Why not have separate rooms? Why not have ventilation? None of it makes sense.
TT – Sorry about Liverpool. On second thoughts, no I’m not. It’s only a fecking game.
“SEANATHAIR ?”
Sea? Cad é?
We’re all allowed to decide whether we want to drink or not. Why should anyone but us decide whether we can smoke or not?
As far as pubs go, I’m a non smoker, so the smoking ban suits me… until I lose the person I’m supposed to be having a drink with because they have to go outside for a cigarette. Most places had a non smoking section before the ban; I don’t see what was wrong with that. Especially when it comes to the summer and you want to have lunch in a beer garden and you find yourself peering through the smoke of all the smokers who used to be able to spread out over the pub.
Also, apparently those bizarre looking heaters that are on the increase in pub gardens since the ban attract mosquitoes. Mosquitoes like to eat me. Therefore, I don’t want them here. Ergo, smoking ban = bad.
Not to mess with your head like, but maybe you ARE dead and you just don’t know it yet! You know like what’s his name ….Bruce Willis, in that film ‘Sixth Sense’.
Or here’s one for you, maybe WE are all dead and your communicating with the other side via this blog….”I blog dead people”
Because, Granddad, you were originally scheduled to live to be about 160 or so, but because of your nasty habit, you’re going to kick it at around 85. tsk tsk.
“Why am I still alive?”
It must be something they put into Cully & Sully soup, Grandad.
I always knew they were good but I didn’t realise they were THAT good 😀
I empathise with Irish smokers who don’t have the benefit of good weather and year round beer gardens where smoking here is acceptable. We have the same level of legislation and many councils have banned smoking in public areas too such as parks, sports stadiums etc. Ironically, the Government earns an absolute fortune through the tax imposed on cigarettes at 100% of cost. I gave up not so much for my health -I enjoyed smoking and didn’t smoke excessively but due to the prohibitive cost of around $12 per pack of 25. I’m saving a cool $300 a month! Boy I miss them tho!
I’m an exsmoker, but DH still smokes. I am so glad to get rid of the habit, it gives me more pocket change and now I can outrun my kids and DH when I piss them off…
But I don’t understand why they keep smokers out of the bars here. Most people smoke who go to bars in America, and it’s ridiculous to be in the casinos and no one is smoking. I hate having my DH have to ditch me to catch a smoke when we’re out and about. With five kids I don’t see him as is, without the smoking bans cutting into us making out publicly in restaurants, bars, and casinos. 😛
JA – It has surprised me in the past, the number of non-smokers who are not in favour of the ban. Really it is not the ban as such that I object to – it’s the whole philosophy behind it. It it was demanded by democratic vote, or even if there had been a public outcry demanding it, things would be different. But this is political correctness, and the Nanny State rolled into one.
I also vociferously question the rationale behind the smoking ban. A senior U.K. government advisor on health apparently said on Radio 5 the other night – “I don’t think the arguments on passive smoking are all that strong”. This is the same adviser that is advocating the licence. The entire ban is based on a public perception of a threat which has been manufactured by the anti-smoking lobby.
Incidentally, they are also talking about banning those patio heater things!!!!
Quickroute – Maybe you are right? It would explain a lot. I was talking to a bloke the other day [I think his name was Adolf Hitler?] who was expressing doubts too.
RhodesTer – Frankly, if I were given a choice between 160 and 85, I’d choose the latter. Do I want to end my days dribbling down my beard and peeing myself all the time? [On second thoughts, I’m there already]
Steph – I’ll put it to them – a new advertising campaign – Cully & Sully PROLONGS LIFE!!!!
Baino – You have put forward the one argument for quitting!! It does cost a fortune, but then so does everything else these days. But it’s one of my few pleasures in life [*aaah*], so they won’t stop me that way.
Michelle – Another non-smoker!! The people I feel sorriest for here are the old single farmers down the country. Their only social contact was to meet in the pub of an evening for a pipe and a pint. Now with the ban and the draconian breath testing, they are confined to isolation. I believe the suicide rate has increased alarmingly.
That is bad.
I read that about the patio heaters. The reasoning is that they are contributing to global warming. I mean , seriously, I’ve had it up to here with these bleeding’ hippies.
As for this license in the UK – the mind boggles as to how I’d react if it were introduced over here.
I already have a license to smoke. It’s called a fucking birth certificate.
OFTR – Any prizes for guessing the next crazy thing they’re going to ban?
I’m a smoker & have been for 38yrs. It’s my choice. I wasn’t pressurised into smoking, I simply do it because I enjoy it. My mum smokes – she’s in her mid 70’s. My motherbylaw smokes & at 79, has recently been diagnosed with colon cancer – primarily caused by many decades of constipation & NOT smoking. I’m 100% behind you grandad. In my opinion, it’s just (whichever) governments’ way of screwing people for more money. Why is honesty such a bad policy? Instead of making stupid fekkin laws, why not tell smokers they’ll simply have to pay more for their pleasure?
I choose not to drink alcohol & I’m bloody sure there are a lot more deaths attributed to arseholes pissed out of their brackets behind a 4 wheel killing machine, than there are people who choose to light up & enjoy a fag. There are statistics, there are figures & then there are the lies that twist all of the figures & statistics.
I recently went through to DoBuy (Dubai) for a charity run & noticed that even our fan-belt & t-cloth bedecked-chain-smoking-arabs have slapped a no smoking ban on all the restaurants & malls. Now business owners are bitching about loss of income! Can’t have it both ways can you.
Sorry for the long comment, but the tree-huggers that propose these stupid bloody laws haven’t got a clue.
Enjoy your pipe grandad, same as I’m going to enjoy my next Gauloise Blondes 🙂
Shite. That’s depressing. The prospect of my mother reaching her natural life expectancy despite her smoking habits is … is …well, shite really.
The only person in my family who smoked was my grandmother. She died in her early sixties of lung cancer.
A friend of the family was a non-smoker, who worked in a bar all his life. He died (a very long, horrible) death of throat cancer almost certainly caused by years of breathing secondary smoke.
This is why I don’t smoke. It’s all down to luck.
I think you are all missing the point. Our government bans smoking because they declare it bad. Well if it is so bad why not take down the corporations making them? The answer is quite obvious. The government makes money off of cigarettes. Everytime you buy a pack of cigarettes you are supporting the government that banned the use of them indoors. Your argument has now become completely void of any rational thought. Seriously, I think we would all be better off if cigarette corporations were shut down. Think about how much fertile land we use to grow tobacco that could be used to grow fruit and vegetables, which would drive down the cost of produce and increase availibility. Do you think the heroin addict would think they were better off if they didn’t do heroin? No, otherwise they wouldn’t do it. Sometimes you have to take things away from people to show them what’s really there. Granted this is a very idealistic view, so here’s a reality check. Govenrment makes societal system in which people think they need money. People work for money. Work creates stress. Money buys cigarettes to deal with stress. Executives at corporation and government officials make tons of money selling you cigarettes. People see this all happen and consume large amounts of liquor hoping it will all go away. It doesn’t. Welcome to 1984.
It seems education in America has gone to pot. (Not the smoking kind!)
All the time and effort it took Ghetto Ninja to bang out that post only to forget to include paragraphs?
The shame. It’s utterly unreadable and probably spam!
Robert – If it’s spam, it’s not much use as there are no links. If he posts in the future including a link, I’ll spam him. He seems genuine. How on earth did you manage to track down this comment? It’s ancient!