Smoking

Parent Cafe
101

<p>What does your comment have to do with the previous post?? Other than trying to denigrate the poster whose opinion you disagree with.</p>

102

<p>This is a health concern that I see as much more pressing.
Sending our coal to China for them to burn.
*Coal dust is notoriously difficult to control. BNSF estimates that each uncovered car loses between 500 pounds and a ton of coal dust en route. It is unknown how much coal dust will be released into the air, onto the land, and into the water from the from the 80-100+ acres of open, continuously turned-over, coal heaps in storage at the terminal site. There are concerns about train derailments, the effects of dust on human health, local clean water supplies, and on the marine environment. The methods of containing coal dust, especially in adverse weather conditions (wind, rain) are unproven, and it is uncertain which party would pay for dust mitigation measures. - See more at: *<a href=“http://www.coaltrainfacts.org/key-facts#sthash.PFQ86PYy.dpuf”>http://www.coaltrainfacts.org/key-facts#sthash.PFQ86PYy.dpuf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

103

<p>My step father was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was wearing a helmet. Should we ban horseback riding, motorcycle riding, peanuts, car exhuast, airplanes, car rides, amusement parks, too? I really don’t know what you are asking with that comment, MOWC. </p>

<p>Smoking causes cancer. Exposure to some fumes of it walking down the street simply does not. </p>

<p>Obesity causes cancer. Sugar kills. Crossing the street will kill you on the wrong day. Explosions happen. Airplanes crash. Cars crash. People fall off of roofs, down stairs, die in avalanches.</p>

<p>People die from a heart attack during sex. </p>

<p>Look, you are not going to live forever. Sorry. None of us are.</p>

104

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And this is where it falls apart…because I’m not going to live forever means that someone can pollute the very air I breathe? Can decrease the years I could spend with my beautiful grandchildren, Tito and Shalicia? Shoot, people aren’t going to live forever so why should I use my indicator? People aren’t going to live forever so why should I list the ingredients in my homemade peanut and gluten based hot sauce?</p>

<p>What would be the effects of every smoker smoking while they walk down the street? Wouldn’t pedestrians essentially be surrounded by smoke? It isn’t a simple “passing by”. It’s more of spending nearly an hour a day with smoke polluted air. </p>

105

<p>Yeah. I’m not sure this is a hill I’m interested in fighting about anymore.</p>

<p>carry on. Law up. Rule up. Wait til they require you to have a condom sensor before you have sex… Or track what you buy at the grocery store. It’s a slippery slope. And we’re halfway down already.</p>

106

<p>It’s good to see so many people concerned about air quality.
Besides reducing the amount you drive, not using aerosol products and gardening organically, it has other ideas like using an electric starter when you grill, painting with a roller or brush instead of spray and using a fan instead of an air conditioner.
<a href=“http://www.hcdoes.org/airquality/Outreach/50%20Ways%20to%20Clean%20the%20Air.htm”>http://www.hcdoes.org/airquality/Outreach/50%20Ways%20to%20Clean%20the%20Air.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>A good number of the most polluted cities are in CA.
<a href=“http://www.stateoftheair.org/2013/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities.html”>http://www.stateoftheair.org/2013/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

107

<p>EK - The CA cities with air pollution problems are not overrun with women using too much hairspray or spray painting knick-nacks. It’s a combination of geography that traps downstream smog from cities and some longstanding farming practices. </p>

108

<p>Cars are like cigarettes to the world’s air. I guess trucks are the cigars. As we’ve made them more clean burning, we’ve also put many more of them on the roads! </p>

<p>Progress has definitely been made since the 1970’s and since the days when Pittsburgh had to keep its streetlights on all day because of the smoke, but progress needs to continue and it needs to include the whole world. </p>

109

<p>VaBluebird -
By the way, are you in VA, and covered with ice and snow?
To your original question. I quit at age 24, after 10 years and at 2+packs a day for 3 reasons. 1, my cough was already as bad as my dad’s, 2, my best friend quit, and 3, you couldn’t smoke on airplanes at that time, and I thought that if I could just quit and get it over with then I wouldn’t have to suffer nicotine cravings on every cross-country or delayed flight.
A colleague quit because his young daughter saw a cancer society commercial where the narrator said “if your daddy smokes, he’s going to die.” She got hysterical and couldn’t be calmed down, and he quit.
My ex-BIL used to start and quit every few months, very casually. Obviously he and I did not react to nicotine the same way.
My father quit when he got emphysema, and later died of lung cancer. The amazing thing to me is that his father also died of lung cancer. How can you keep smoking when you see what it did to your loved one? On the other hand, I’m not sure how he ever quit, and don’t think he ever got through the withdrawal depression.</p>

<p>On the subject of e-cigs. On the one hand, they seem ok to me for people already addicted, at least for those who just can’t break the addiction, and are better off with e-cigs than inhaling smoke. On the other hand, I worry that they will attract a whole new generation of smokers/vaporers. I haven’t read any specific health issues caused by nicotine, except for the addiction. It hurts your wallet, but doesn’t seem to otherwise shorten your life. Is the e-cig industry worse than video games and state lotteries in that sense? It’s no better, certainly.</p>

110

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<p>I can remember when people were allowed to smoke in the back of the plane. Can you believe that? Think of all the second hand smoke the people in the front got. </p>

111

<p>poetgrl, do you smoke?</p>

112

<p>Poetgirl said she doesn’t smoke, just thinks all this fear about second hand smoke is overblown. My H has chronic asthma and his receptionist smokes. Of course, she doesn’t blow it in his face, but I don’t really think he’s too worried about whether she goes outside occasionally. Well, unless the phone is ringing. That would be a problem.</p>

113

<p>How do people smoke multiple packs a day? How many cigarettes are in a pack? Do people smoke multiple cigarettes in a siting? Or go through them really fast?</p>

<p>I’m just curious. No one in my family or friends smoke. </p>

114

<p>Not a smoker, but I know plenty of them. So, there are 20 cigs in a pack. Two packs a day is a lot of smoking. And, yes there are chain smokers. Most smokers I know are not chain smokers. They go outside to smoke and actually rarely finish a cigarette so the truth is there’s probably a lot of waste in those numbers.</p>

115

<p>I quit the day that I saw I had 2 lighted cigarettes in my ashtray as I reached for my pack of cigs at work (this was 1987).</p>

116

<p>Check out how many cigarettes the average Russian smokes from my link a few pages back.
Almost 3000 a year!</p>

117

<p>I don’t smoke and don’t know anyone who does. I cannot recall the last time I encountered second hand smoke, as all restaurants and most pubic spaces don’t permit smoking. My impression is that smoking is now something people do in the privacy of one’s home or car. If I am in the city, I might pass someone standing outside smoking, but I would be exaggerating to say the smoke effects me in any way. I usually don’t even smell it. So where is it that everyone encounters all this smoking? </p>

118

<p>My parents smoked 5 packs a day between them. 3 for dad- pall mall no filters 2 for mom either kool or salem. Dad quit in 1978 mom quit in 1989.
None of their 5 kids ever smoked. All of us remember there being a lit cigarette and filled ashtrays all over the house. Remember when ashtrays were given as gifts?
My mom and dad turn 81 this year. They would have a hard time meeting their expenses if they smoked 5 packs a day now.</p>

119

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<p>Parks, walkways, bus stops, etc.</p>

<p>I can’t tell you how many times as an umpire I had to tell parents to not smoke in the dug outs or on the field. You’re not allowed to smoke on school grounds anyway and I was the first one to open up my mouth because that crap is not cool. </p>

120

<p>States vary from 29% smokers in Kentucky to 11% in Utah.
<a href=“Smoking Rates Remain Highest in Kentucky, Lowest in Utah”>Smoking Rates Remain Highest in Kentucky, Lowest in Utah;
Anyone notice that in movies & television, someone smoking is still shorthand for dangerous/sexy/cool?</p>