`sitting on the couch is as harmful as smoking`

[Bluegrass]

first of all yes it can give you cancer, yes its bad for you, i dont care right now, ill cross that bridge when i get to it.

while i was watching the news the other day i saw that a new study had come out that said `sitting on the couch is as bad as smoking`this confirmed my conclusion that 98% of people in this world are sheep, and that everything in moderation is ok, because if im not out on the lake ice fishing-dipping SKOAL ill be on the couch killing myself anyways.
-Yes id prefer killing myself on the Lake ice fishing rather then on the couch watching TV or Video games....

so dont let anyone tell you what to do, dont let anyone tell you to stop smoking or chewing tabacco, do what you want! unless it harms other peoples lives.

Thank you!

[sakogreywolf]

What happened to "nobody moves, nobody gets hurt."

[Okotokian]

Originally Posted by Bluegrass

so dont let anyone tell you what to do, dont let anyone tell you to stop smoking or chewing tabacco, do what you want! unless it harms other peoples lives.

Absolutely. Of course we have to assume no one loves you or depends on you. If there are, then they get hurt. Just something to consider. But yeah, it's up to you.

[Hevishot]

This must mean im a carton a day smoker some days......

[elkhunter11]

so dont let anyone tell you what to do, dont let anyone tell you to stop smoking or chewing tabacco, do what you want! unless it harms other peoples lives.

The extra cost to health care to deal with illnesses caused by smoking costs all taxpayers extra money, so in fact it effects us all.

However, the people most effected , are the family and friends of those people that end up with smoking related illnesses.

while i was watching the news the other day i saw that a new study had come out that said `sitting on the couch is as bad as smoking`this confirmed my conclusion that 98% of people in this world are sheep,

Apparently tobacco effects some peoples ability to interpret studies.

[pseelk]

Its funny how these clowns profess to know everything that causes cancer yet they have no idea how to cure it.

[ak-71]

Originally Posted by Bluegrass

self anyways.
-Yes id prefer killing myself on the Lake ice fishing rather then on the couch watching TV or Video games....

Just don't sit down while fishing and you can smoke all you want then

[prairiecustom]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

The extra cost to health care to deal with illnesses caused by smoking costs all taxpayers extra money, so in fact it effects us all.

Now I am not going to say that smokers do not cost the heath care system more than non smokers,thats just common sense but........
What I will say is you really have to take some statistics with a grain of salt.
My aunt worked for the government for 25 years.Part of her job was in the so called statistics.She told us that they can make statistics work for anyone,any point of view they want.She said most statistics about smoking deaths are very skewed.Believe it or not,I will because I see no reason for my aunt to lie(she is a non smoker by the way) that if you die and you are a smoker,you go into the category of smoking deaths.It didn't matter if the cause of your death was from lung cancer,heart disease or you were hit by a car.If you smoked,died,you went into that category

[Bigdad013]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

The extra cost to health care to deal with illnesses caused by smoking costs all taxpayers extra money, so in fact it effects us all.

However, the people most effected , are the family and friends of those people that end up with smoking related illnesses.



Apparently tobacco effects some peoples ability to interpret studies.

Actually, smokers are beneficial to the health care system, if you consider how much more tax they pay about 3.000/year, say over 40 years 120,000 dollars into the system. If the smoker gets lung cancer, they are usually not given that long of a life after, so really the smokers are not that much of a burden on the system. And not all smokers develop cancer, so really how much money is being sucked out of them, is actually benefiting the system. This was actually told to me by a doctor as my friend was smoking on the golf course. Something to think about anyways..

[Jimboy]

Fat people eatin to much=burden on health care ,diabetis etc
Skiers hittin trees , breakin bones= burden on health care
Bringing over imigrants by the boat load= burden on health care
Hikers , fallin off cliffs , bear attacks , =burden on heath care
Car accidents=burden on health care
Drinkin and being an idiot , fighting and fallin down=burden on health care
hockey playin =burden on health care
huntin , fishin accidents , not so much =burden on health care
Quaders turnin upside down =burden on health care
cyclists , fallin down = burden on health care
Druggies , weed smokers , may even be a few on this site ,=burden on health care
The hospitals are full of sick people , all with sicknesses caused mostly by their own faults , wheather its by stupidity or bad personal habits , but this is not the issue.
lt dont matter how its caused , we still have to help each other out , so dont go around and stomp on the smokers only, here , some of your own activities and eating habits are just as bad.
ANDDDD , yes we all pay for health care .

PS l have stopped smoking for 6 weeks now , but l dont blame smokers for doing what they enjoy.

[drake]

Originally Posted by Bigdad013

Actually, smokers are beneficial to the health care system, if you consider how much more tax they pay about 3.000/year, say over 40 years 120,000 dollars into the system. If the smoker gets lung cancer, they are usually not given that long of a life after, so really the smokers are not that much of a burden on the system. And not all smokers develop cancer, so really how much money is being sucked out of them, is actually benefiting the system. This was actually told to me by a doctor as my friend was smoking on the golf course. Something to think about anyways..

Your Doctor is a munson.....no offence

[Okotokian]

Originally Posted by Jimboy

PS l have stopped smoking for 6 weeks now , but l dont blame smokers for doing what they enjoy.

That's excellent! Congrats.

And I don't think anybody's "blaming". Smokers aren't doing anything bad to me.

I've smoked and rock climbed. Both dangerous. I just finally figured if I was gonna risk my life I'd rather risk it on something more thrilling than standing outside my office shivering in the cold with a cig in my brown fingers. But I'm not morally superior to the folks still there.

-Been there, puffed that.

[Redfrog]

"PS l have stopped smoking for 6 weeks now , but l dont blame smokers for doing what they enjoy"

Good for you. Hang in there.


And for all those that would like the stts to say smoking is ok, or other stuff is as bad or someone smoked their whole life and got hit by a bus, do us all a favor and stop blowing smoke up our skirt.

There is nothing beneficial about smoking, so paint it any color you want, That dog won't hunt.

[Killerb]

Originally Posted by Bluegrass

first of all yes it can give you cancer, yes its bad for you, i dont care right now, ill cross that bridge when i get to it.

while i was watching the news the other day i saw that a new study had come out that said `sitting on the couch is as bad as smoking`this confirmed my conclusion that 98% of people in this world are sheep, and that everything in moderation is ok, because if im not out on the lake ice fishing-dipping SKOAL ill be on the couch killing myself anyways.
-Yes id prefer killing myself on the Lake ice fishing rather then on the couch watching TV or Video games....

so dont let anyone tell you what to do, dont let anyone tell you to stop smoking or chewing tabacco, do what you want! unless it harms other peoples lives.

Thank you!

Yes but sitting on the couch excessively is the problem. Combined with 1 hour of daily exercise, sitting on the couch wont do anything. You can reverse obesity in a year. It takes years to reverse tobacco damage. There are way too many variables to be considered. Were the couch potatoes eating a good diet. If they were fat, chances are they had bad diets. Were they pre disposed for heart disease and strokes. I can go on and on about this.
Ive seen 400lbs people who live till their 60's. My grandpa died at 40 because at 210 lbs. All because his family line has a high history of heart attacks.
Albeit you are right let people kill themselves as long as I dont have to smell it.

[blacknorthernjk]

Yup, just never as simple as what it may seem. I think Jimboy sums it up best.

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

The extra cost to health care to deal with illnesses caused by smoking costs all taxpayers extra money, so in fact it effects us all.

However, the people most effected , are the family and friends of those people that end up with smoking related illnesses.

The same is true of eating a lot of junk food, excessive alcohol consumption, sitting in traffic, living in a city and a whole lot of other things.

Maybe the last two aren't good examples, but I'm sure everyone gets the point.

Smoking, the new witch hunt.

There is no doubt that smoking is not good for a person, the extent to which it is a problem is not so clear. There are a lot of claims out there that simply don't make sense. For instance, a few weeks ago I watched a new broadcast where they interviewed a anti smoking activist who stated that second hand smoke that settled on furniture could kill, years after the smoker had been there. It was clear that she wanted us to believe that this smoke residue was lethal for a very long time and in very small quantities.

Thing is, there might have been a bit of truth in what she said. It may well be that the second hand smoke that lead to that deposit did contribute to a death that happened years later. Not that the deposit contributed, nore was the second hand smoke the only or even the key factor. Only one contributing factor. And the years later was the end of a chain of factors, not one result from one factor, at the time.


A lot of the anti smoking campaign is like this. Sure smoking is a factor in some deaths. But is it the only factor, is it the key factor, how long does it take, in what concentrations ? These things make a big difference to the public perception of smoking but they are almost never address openly.

I would like someone to explain why Granny C lived to be 109 years old yet she smoked a pack of Players Regular every day and had smoked since she was in her early twenties.
While her granddaughter, who had never smoked, died of lung cancer at the age of 32.

Second hand smoke ? Maybe. But more likely other factors played a much bigger role. Yet they are not even mentioned.

My dad was a smoker, he quit when he was in his late sixties, and sure enough at age 82 it got him. He died of heart failure.
Now here I am, a one pack a day habit that started when I was 17. Now I'm in my late fifties and I can feel the effects of all those years of smoking, and second hand smoke. One day it will get me too. Maybe before I reach 80.

I wonder how many people would be alive today, if they had given up smoking before they died in a car crash.

[Bigdad013]

Originally Posted by drake

Your Doctor is a munson.....no offence

Not my doctor, just golfed with him

[Rocky7]

Originally Posted by KegRiver

I wonder how many people would be alive today, if they had given up smoking before they died in a car crash.

That was funny. I don't care who you are, that there was funny.

[elkhunter11]

I find it ironic how many smokers try to twist things to the point as to trying to make smoking into a positive thing. A glass of wine or a beer a day can actually be healthy, but no amount of smoking can improve your health.

I wonder how many people would be alive today, if they had given up smoking before they died in a car crash.

I wonder how many accidents are caused by smokers that aren't paying attention as they light up a smoke, or as they are in a mad rush to pick up a burning smoke that fell on the carpet of the vehicle?

[Bushrat]

I don't know, Look at it another way. The vast majority of the cost of cigarettes is taxes. The smoker pays an increadible amount in taxes for an average 45 year smoking career. Pack a day smoker pays about $3000 dollars a year in cigarette taxes. Smoker gets emphazema, copd, cancer, stroke, etc. at say 60 or 65 years, walks around with an oxygen mask, many hospital visits, cancer treatment, surgery, hospital stays, palliative care then dies. Costs a lot of money. He didn't live long enough to collect old age and Canada pension or collects a whole lot less years of it than the average non smoker. Didn't live long enough to be in subsidized old folks home. Never lived long enough to get those nasty diseases that take out elders who on average tend to frequent the doctor quite often, getting subsidized prescriptions, surgeries, hip replacements, arthritis, senility, or a host of other diseases including cancer that cost a fortune to treat. Those non smokers eventually go into hospital for palliative care and eventually die. Believe me the average non smokers death is not any prettier than your average smokers death, nor are the treatment of non smokers diseases any less expensive.

What really costs our health care is longevity. The longer one lives after retirement the more it costs the gov't in pensions, elder care, nursing homes, prescriptions, hospital visits and extended stays. It costs money to die, on average no more for the smoker and his cancer than the non smoker. Only difference is the smoker has a shorter life on average and pays more taxes....I call those cigarette taxes cancer payments. Non smoker lives longer on average, dosen't contribute those massive smoking taxes, still dies of diseases that cost as much as it costs for the smoker to die but they collect much more social benefits due to a longer life span after retirement.

The gov't would love it if we all worked and payed taxes to 65 then drop dead on retirement day. If they can suck more money out of you during your contributing years in the form of cigarette and booze taxes the better off they are. The shorter we live after retirement day = less costs of taking care of the aged and elderly the more money they save.

If the gov't really wanted us to quit drinking and smoking then they would quit selling it to us. They sell it to us for a reason and that is to make money. They don't really give a sh*t about our health.

[KegRiver]

I don't see any smokers trying to claim that smoking is good for anyone.
I don't see smokers trying to make smoking look good in any way.

What I do see is a lot of people who, not knowing the health risks ext, got hooked, and now fight every day to quit a filthy habit that they know is killing them. And we are tired of the self righteous know it all's preaching to us about how dangerous second hand smoke is and how much treating smokers health problems costs.

For one thing, beating us to death with half truths isn't helping us to quit, and secondly, take the plank out of your own eye before trying to take the splinter out of mine.

How would you like it if people treated you the way they treat smokers, because you eat junk food, drink too much beer, don't exercise, mix weed sprays without protective gear, climb ladders without a safety harness or any of a thousand other things that have as much potential to hurt you as smoking does of hurting me ?

And save the self righteous junk about second hand smoke. It is nothing compared to car exhaust and no one is belly aching about that.
And we won't even get into the chemicals we spray into our breathing space, the toxic fumes from burning man made materials, or the chemicals we eat in our food, chemicals that we are just starting to learn about the harm they are doing us.

Get this. I don't smoke because I like it. I smoke because I wanted to be part of the in crowd, and I learned too late that it is a tenacious, debilitating habit. Three times I have quit for a few months, three times someone offered me a smoke and out of habit I accepted, forgetting that I had quit.

Why do you think people dying of smoke related disease would struggle out of their warm hospital bed to go outside in -30 degree cold to have a smoke ?

You seem to think it's just a nasty habit like picking ones nose, and all one has to do is cowboy up and quit. For some that works, for people like me that does not work and beating me to death isn't helping either.

[Bigdad013]

Originally Posted by KegRiver

I don't see any smokers trying to claim that smoking is good for anyone.
I don't see smokers trying to make smoking look good in any way.

What I do see is a lot of people who, not knowing the health risks ext, got hooked, and now fight every day to quit a filthy habit that they know is killing them. And we are tired of the self righteous know it all's preaching to us about how dangerous second hand smoke is and how much treating smokers health problems costs.

For one thing, beating us to death with half truths isn't helping us to quit, and secondly, take the plank out of your own eye before trying to take the splinter out of mine.

How would you like it if people treated you the way they treat smokers, because you eat junk food, drink too much beer, don't exercise, mix weed sprays without protective gear, climb ladders without a safety harness or any of a thousand other things that have as much potential to hurt you as smoking does of hurting me ?

And save the self righteous junk about second hand smoke. It is nothing compared to car exhaust and no one is belly aching about that.
And we won't even get into the chemicals we spray into our breathing space, the toxic fumes from burning man made materials, or the chemicals we eat in our food, chemicals that we are just starting to learn about the harm they are doing us.

Get this. I don't smoke because I like it. I smoke because I wanted to be part of the in crowd, and I learned too late that it is a tenacious, debilitating habit. Three times I have quit for a few months, three times someone offered me a smoke and out of habit I accepted, forgetting that I had quit.

Why do you think people dying of smoke related disease would struggle out of their warm hospital bed to go outside in -30 degree cold to have a smoke ?

You seem to think it's just a nasty habit like picking ones nose, and all one has to do is cowboy up and quit. For some that works, for people like me that does not work and beating me to death isn't helping either.

Well said. Smoke free now 2.5 months, never done anything harder.

Car exhaust: A family friend died from lung cancer attributed from jogging everyday to work among the cars and buses, he never smoked a day in his life