I'll add my two cents.
I worked in a cigar shop lounge for over 3 years as a Tobacconist. We sold cigars, pipes and pipe tobacco. I got the job not knowing anything about cigars. However it seemed interesting to me so I did my best to learn everything I could. It was a pretty nice job for the most part. We had big comfy chairs where people could smoke and talk and watch sports. There was a large walk in humidor with the thousands of cigars we sold, I had to know all of them. I had to know who made them, where they were from, what leaves were used, and the strength and taste of them.
So first off it needs to be noted that cigars and cigarettes are not the same, cigars are 100% pure tobacco and no, you do not inhale them into your lungs. Cigars are an olfactory and oral pleasure and a poor substitute for those who smoke cigarettes. Cigarettes are sometimes are not 100% tobacco, there are bits of paper soaked in juices of the tobacco leaves sometimes as well as the actual bits of leaves. The filter reduces the strength which is why it is possible to inhale and not choke.
I have had a lot of time to contemplate the whole smoking thing. Honestly, the severity its hazards are grossly overstated. A person who occasionally smokes will not get cancer or lung disease. There is not one single death certificate in the world which states "cause of death smoking" or "cause of death second hand smoke". Why? Because its impossible and the doctors can't say it. But if you have ever smoked for a period of time and you get some kind of cancer when you're 70 years old they will say it was because of the smoking you did 5, 10, or 20 years ago. To the medical community any amount of smoking is bad for you and will make you sick...wrong.
What is the age that most people die? Anywhere from 65-85 right? And how old do most people die of cancer if they chronically smoked? About that same time frame, between 65-85. So in other words the people who have spent 20 or 40 years smoking died about the time something was going to kill them anyway! Something is bound to get you when you reach that age! The medical community doesn't have a leg to stand on. If people were dying at age 35 then I would say smoking is a bad idea but since most people who smoke die when they are older anyway and you could die from anything at that point does it really matter? My grandfather did tobacco his whole life and lived to 92.
Now am I saying its a good idea to smoke 1 to 3 packs of cigarettes a day? No of course not. Then again if you were someone who ate ice cream everyday, or ate cheeseburgers everyday, or a bag of potato chips everyday, or drank a lot of alcohol everyday I would say that you shouldn't do that either. The world is so fixated on telling us how horribly and things are for us they don't even stop to consider some simple common sense approaches to things.
I think obesity is more of an epidemic than smoking but you dint here lobbyists rushing to ban McDonalds do you? But would anyone argue that McDonalds is somehow good for you? No of course not! Everyone knows its crappy food and not good for you but Americans eat there everyday, some people multiple times a week. They have high blood pressure, are obese and have a myriad of health problems but no one will say that McDonalds should be banned. Why? Because it is up to YOU to eat there in MODERATION.
The same goes for smoking, if you smoke a pack or two or three a day is it really going to be a surprise if EVENTUALLY after several decades something negative will happen to your health? Especially considering that many cigarettes do have chemicals in them and are not all natural tobacco (not all but many). . My point to this rant is that smoking, like all things we ingest, can only be bad for your health if you do it too much. Is there an amount of risk to smoking? Of course! There is risk in everything in life! If you take shower you could slip and kill yourself for crying out loud! But should we boycott showers because of the off chance you may die showering? Or out law running cause you may trip and fall. You have a higher chance of dying in a car accident than you will have smoking cigarettes.
Moderation is key, if it becomes an addiction then its an issue. But people are addicted to all manner of things:fast food, coffee, soda, pain killers, alcohol, sex, video games, working, sleeping. But would anyone say that any of the things I listed are in and of themselves bad? No, because if you only do them sometimes then they are unlikely to badly affect your health right? Which is my point.
If we all just use common sense and moderation we can indulge in some things that aren't considered healthy and not affect our overall health. Having a pack of cigarettes over the course of a couple of weeks or month will not kill you. I would bet my own life on that
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Topic: Smokers (Read 11926 times)