keyboarder Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 t here's the thing: having smoked now for 36 years, the damage is probably done. Giving up tomorrow is unlikely to affect MY future a jot (although I would heartily encourage anyone younger to quit on health grounds). I'm just hoping that if I do succumb to the disease it is as a tired old man ready for the big sleep anyway. One of my favourite quotes (by Hunter S Thompson I think) is: “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: “Wow, what a ride!!” As excuses for continuing a ridiculous and irrational habit go, these are amongst the most desperate. Sad really, but at least you are not alone. The tobacco companies will one day be held accountable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trostagh Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 As an ex-smoker with no firm views either way it strikes me that a sensible approach might be to let the market decide. Why is Government intervention necessary? Logic suggests that if, for example, a pub decided to go 'smoke free' then the customer could decide whether to go there or not. However, preventing all pubs from allowing smoking prevents the consumer from making just the kind of advised choice that Stu Peters seems to be advocating. If you don't like smoke don't go to the smoky pubs! I was under the impression that pubs and restaurants could already choose to go smoke free! Presumably there's a sound commercial reason for them not choosing to do so. I don't go to smoky restaurants! Still quite like smoky pubs though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ponderer Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Smoking – some facts for Stu and his ‘supporters’ Smoking in the UK costs the NHS around £1.5bn per year for treating diseases caused by smoking. Each year around 34 million days are lost in England and Wales through sickness absence caused by smoking. Making workplaces in England smoke free would give a net benefit of £2.3bn - £2.7bn. About half of all regular cigarette smokers will eventually be killed by their addiction. Smoking causes almost 90% of deaths by lung cancer, around 80% of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema and around 17% of deaths from heart disease. People who smoke between 1 and 14 cigarettes a day have eight times the risk of dying from lung cancer compared to non-smokers. Smoking has been associated with increased sperm abnormalities and is a cause of impotence. Overall smoking increases the risk of impotence by around 50% for men in their 30s and 40s In Great Britain around 25% of men (and 23% of women) smoke – which is down from 51% of men and 41% of women in 1974. So thankfully for everybody, Stu’s behaviour is increasingly out of touch… 21% of men and 27% of women are now ex-smokers…. The most recent estimates show that around 114,000 people in the UK are killed by smoking every year, accounting for one fifth of all UK deaths. Deaths caused by smoking are five times higher than the 22,833 deaths arising from: traffic accidents (3,439); poisoning and overdose (881); alcoholic liver disease (5,121); other accidental deaths (8,579); murder and manslaughter (513); suicide (4,066); and HIV infection (234) in the UK during 2002 It doesn’t just affect you Secondhand smoke has been shown to cause lung cancer and heart disease in adult non-smokers and reduced lung function in people with asthma… Whilst the relative health risks from passive smoking are small in comparison with those from active smoking, because the diseases are common, the overall health impact is large. Professor Konrad Jamrozik, formerly of Imperial College London, has estimated that domestic exposure to secondhand smoke in the UK causes around 2,700 deaths in people aged 20-64 and a further 8,000 deaths a year among people aged 65 years or older. Exposure to secondhand smoke at work is estimated to cause the death of more than two employed persons per working day across the UK as a whole (617 deaths a year), including 54 deaths a year in the hospitality industry. Its never too late to stop One year after stopping, the risk of a heart attack falls to about half of that of a smoker and, within five years, falls to a level similar to that of a non-smoker. Within 10-15 years of quitting, an ex-smoker’s risk of developing lung cancer is only slightly greater than that of a non-smoker. Source: www.ash/org.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Why are smokers still bleating on about this. We've lost the argument fellas. It'll be a inconvenient but not that bad. Let's move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gladys Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Amen to that Declan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonan3 Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 I agree, but I still want these bloody second-hand smokers to stop inhaling my smoke unless the miserable bastards are at least prepared to share the cost of my ciggies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebees Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Why are smokers still bleating on about this. We've lost the argument fellas. It'll be a inconvenient but not that bad. Let's move on. I notice in this thread that it is the non-smokers who are bleating on and on. Darn right Lonan, pesky freeloaders and then they have the cheek to complain that their clothes/hair smell and they have a cough. Cheek! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoracle Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Smoking in the UK costs the NHS around £1.5bn per year for treating diseases caused by smoking. Making workplaces in England smoke free would give a net benefit of £2.3bn - £2.7bn. the tobacco industry generates over £10bn in tax revenue annually. seems to me like smokers are not only paying for their own treatment through taxation but funding the treatement of many other people who end up in hospital as a consequence of their own actions and who dont pay large amounts of tax. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speckled Frost Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Back several million years we all lived in the sea and you wouldn't have been able to smoke then - so it goes against nature and therefore is wrong. A bit like homosexuality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sausages Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 So what you're saying is, fags should be banned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Smoking – some facts for Stu and his ‘supporters’ Smoking in the UK costs the NHS around £1.5bn per year for treating diseases caused by smoking. Each year around 34 million . . .etc Source: www.ash/org.uk nipper, when he was about more on these forums, had strong researched views on smoking and the anti-thereof. nipperesque as the above part quoted post might be, ponderer /= nipper. I like the cut of the jib though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 a nipperesque nipperess no less and one who sleeps 'til past midday, possibly due to the excesses of the TT. Sounds like my type of girl . . . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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