<p>If nicotine were a food additive or a pesticide wouldn’t it be banned?</p>
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<p>what is the drinking rate?</p>
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<p>Nicotine is an insecticide. It was bottled and sold as an aphid spray.</p>
<p>[Nicotine</a> spray](<a href=“http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7028/6671003013_906a1082c6_z.jpg]Nicotine”>http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7028/6671003013_906a1082c6_z.jpg)</p>
![http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7028/6671003013_906a1082c6_z.jpg]Nicotine](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7028/6671003013_906a1082c6_z.jpg%5DNicotine){kind=link}
<p>It’s certainly not banned as a food additive. Nicotine chewing gum is sold over the counter in convenience stores.</p>
<p>Why do people with hereditary health issues reproduce? I have a friend whose father had a heart attack and mom had breast cancer. Why in the world would she have kids knowing that she was putting them at risk?</p>
<p>I am sometimes amazed at the questions asked in this forum…</p>
<p>^ What?!</p>
<p>Seems to me to be very similar. The question was ‘Why do people still smoke?’ People smoke knowing the risks involved. Knowing they are putting themselves and others at risk. People also have children knowing they are passing down hereditary health issues to their children. Why do people that know they have cancer, heart issues, etc. in their family history still have children? Isn’t that putting others (your children) at risk?</p>
<p>When people die from heart disease, cancer, etc, they are often in their 70’s or 80’s.
Considering that people have children in their 20’s, well before they may have any indication of illness,why should they assume they should relinquish the joys of having children because 70 years later they might die? ( or it might be 80 years- still, a good long time)</p>
<p>My father died from depression in his early 40’s. I have a similar tendency to depression as do my kids. However we are managing it pretty well. Should I have not had children because I have had familial depression?</p>
<p>My mom and dad were life long smokers (mom still does but doesn’t think we can smell the smoke on her clothing or in her apartment). My dad died two years ago from a lung cancer that he feared his whole life but never knew he had. They found the tumors on a CT scan about an hour before he died. Just as well that he never knew that his worst fear had been realized.
My mom has (I’m guessing) COPD or Emphysema (are they the same thing?) Chronic cough, short of breath, chokes a bit when she eats or drinks. She won’t acknowledge it and won’t tell her doctor that she has symptoms. He has never picked up on it at her check ups. I’ve dealt with enough people in my life who work denial like it’s their job to know that I can’t make her stop smoking and I can’t get her to consider the fact that she already has lung disease.
This quote from idad is the truth. When kids try smoking for the first time, they don’t think they are signing up for a life sentence or a death sentence. That would never occur to them. You can’t know what an addiction is like until you experience it and if you are experiencing it, it’s too late.
My H goes nuts about people who smoke. Thinks they are just weak. I don’t agree with that. They are victims of an addiction that they didn’t knowingly sign up for. They made a mistake of judgement. Having said that, I don’t appreciate smoking around me or in public places and I hate the smell of it. I think it should be banned. I think that the government tries to protect the public from harm and they have neglected this in a big way. </p>
<p>And Razorsharp, you are way off base. Lack of education may correlate somewhat with lower intelligence but it is just as likely to be due to poverty levels, family situations, etc. When people chose to try smoking it is a person like any other making a stupid decision. That doesn’t make them a stupid person. Have you ever tried something that was a bad decision? Does that make you stupid?</p>
<p>EPTR: a wonderful post.</p>
<p>Charlottemom, you mentioned you smoked for thirty years. Did you quit before you had your kids? What motivated you to quit?
I smoked a long time ago, but I quit when they reached $.65 a pack as I thought that was ridiculous. ( it was more expensive than a gallon of gas!!! - talk about a nations addiction. :o)</p>
<p>My mom had severe asthma for about twenty years before she died. She had never smoked and it wasnt related to 2nd hand smoke, but possibly related to fumes from neurotoxins at work.</p>
<p>Do you use plastic? Why when you know the chemicals that leach into the environment are neurotoxins?
[Persistent</a> toxic chemicals in the US food supply* – Schafer and Kegley 56 (11): 813 – Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health](<a href=“http://jech.bmj.com/content/56/11/813.full]Persistent”>http://jech.bmj.com/content/56/11/813.full)</p>
<p>Do you drink fluoridated water? Why?</p>
<p>[Harvard</a> Study Finds Fluoride Lowers IQ - Published in Federal Gov’t Journal | Reuters](<a href=“http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/24/idUS127920+24-Jul-2012+PRN20120724]Harvard”>http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/24/idUS127920+24-Jul-2012+PRN20120724)</p>
<p>Charlotte, it’s not the same. It’s really not. My grandmother died of lung cancer in her early 60s. Much of my mom’s family has died really young due to heart disease and other possibly hereditary diseases (maybe, maybe not- the science is still out on how environmental factors, diet, etc play in to disease vs genes). My mom inherited none of them though but there was no way of knowing whether or not she inherited them until LONG after she was able to have kids. It’s not really a close analogy IMO. </p>
<p>OTOH, my mom has Graves’ disease which has a strong hereditary component and as far as we know, she’s the only person in her family to ever have that. I don’t even have the hyperthyroidism that leads to Graves’. </p>
<p>Your children might be at predisposition from those things, maybe, if they get those genes. Smoking always puts your health at risk. ALWAYS. </p>
<p>Also, you can test for many hereditary diseases either before conception or very early on in the pregnancy. </p>
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<p>QFT.</p>
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Because most smokers aren’t like you, for one thing.</p>
<p>I’m not in favor of banning smoking, either. But I think that tobacco products should be taxed at rates high enough to ensure that smokers shoulder all the social costs of smoking, including health care for indigent people with smoking-related illnesses.</p>
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Do you think the answer to the second question is obvious? I’m not so sure.</p>
<p>I don’t really understand this all out assault on smokers. I get that it harms others by polluting the air. Other than that, it is like any other mildly destructive habits we have, eating hamburgers, or drinking coffee, alchohol, doing drugs. So what’s the big deal?</p>
<p>Since my last post, I think the only argument that’s been raised is that smoking affects the health of smokers and those around them, and that smokers should have to bear the burden of costs to society.</p>
<p>First off, it’s worth noting that tax is already collected specifically on cigarettes and tobacco products. If this tax is insufficient to cover smokers’ cost to society, I think that a discussion about what the tax ought to be would be entirely appropriate. How much do smokers cost the health care system? How much tax is being brought in? I don’t have these answers, and don’t particularly care to try to find out. My gut says, though, that smokers pay a lot of taxes, and exposure to secondhand smoke has been greatly reduced over the years. If an imbalance existed in the past, it seems that the imbalance must have been greatly reduced, if the balance hasn’t shifted too far in the other direction already. The argument that smokers need to pay more seems weak since smokers do, in fact, already pay more, and are probably willing to pay even more than they already do, if a valid case can be made.</p>
<p>Secondly, campus bans seem particularly objectionable to me. Now, I’m no biologist. But surgeon general’s reports and studies that I found a couple of years ago appear to offer little evidence supporting outdoors smoking bans. I don’t want to throw numbers around so long after reading the article, but the bottom line is that inhaling some smoke outside for a few minutes per day isn’t any more dangerous than walking along a street, leaving the vent on or window open in city traffic or spending an hour mowing the lawn with a gas mower. To say that outdoor bans in addition to those on smoking near doors or air intake vents would do anything but further marginalize smokers seems to be a claim requiring evidence. Perhaps I’m legitimately unaware of such evidence. For the most part, I think that the evidence supporting effects of secondhand smoke indoors is more than enough to justify existing indoor bans (in public areas, of course).</p>
<p>At the end of the day, I think there’s plenty of stuff people do which other people think is really, really “stupid”. Smoking is just one highly unpopular “stupid” activity. Sometimes I wonder what the next “stupid” activity will be? Will it be something you enjoy?</p>
<p>I work at a high-tech firm with about 50 people in our office. To my knowledge there are only 2 people who smoke. Alarmingly, both are young women under 30. One is the receptionist and the other is in a admin position. They are both very attractive. It makes me so sad to see them hiking out to the parking garage for a smoke.</p>
<p>Had a glorious conversation with S1 once where he was recalling the “completely disgusting” pictures and videos he was forced to watch during 8th grade Health class. He said “Mom, how could anyone possibly want to smoke?”. I told him I didn’t know and then I emailed that teacher to thank her :-).</p>
<p>I doubt many people hate smoking as much as I do. My mom died from COPD and emphysema. I smoked for 30+ years and am thankful every day that I quit.</p>
<p>I don’t understand however, how some people can be so arrogant as to condemn others for smoking. I know that smoking puts people at risk of many health issues but I also know that not everyone who smokes dies from it. My point is that IF you had children knowing that you have any family hereditary issues you have put your children at risk - same as someone who smokes.</p>
<p>I am very lucky to have a good family health history. My Mom lived into her 80’s (and would have likely lived much longer if she hadn’t smoked), dad is still living, grandparents lived into their 80’s and 90’s. </p>
<p>Smokers pay more for health insurance due to the potential health issues. Shouldn’t those with a family history of health issues pay more too? Maybe we should require everyone have genetic testing and base their insurance rate on the results?</p>
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Academically speaking, it might have been more genuine to tell him that people smoke because they enjoy smoking, but that you can’t imagine why it would be enjoyable. (Have you ever tried smoking?)</p>
<p>* He said “Mom, how could anyone possibly want to smoke?”. *</p>
<p>I remember thinking the same thing when I found out how humans reproduce.
;)</p>
<p>^LOL. I know. My kid’s friend threw up after seeing the child birth film.</p>