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StrangerThan -> RE: Smoking in car declared 'child abuse' in UK... (8/10/2010 7:06:14 AM)
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ORIGINAL: Aneirin
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ORIGINAL: Jeffff
Here is a nice article on 3rd hand smoke too.
If anyone ever smoked anywhere.... we are all going to DIE!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100208154651.htm
You know what is really interesting about all these so called smoking related hazards, it seems a day can't go by without some study or other condemning smoking, it causes this, it causes that, it causes the other etc. If if it was such a bad bad product that was responsible for so much human damage, don't you think governments around the world would have banned it from use, like so many other one time acceptable products, e.g. DDT, sodium fluoride,thiourea etc.
Come on there is so much evidence saying how bad tobacco products are, why are they still available to use, pollute and cause harm.
Or is it........
In reality a complete load of hogwash and used as a scapegoat for other enviromental pollutants which carry more weight ?
As to research sientists, well when it comes to getting funding to research what carries more political and there funding available need, studying the effect of wombat poo on the enviroment, or tobacco usage and in particular; smoking ?
But here's another potential pollutant in vehicles, all that plastic and other man made fibres that adorn the cabin, wire insulation when it is in use etc, as plastic smells, it is a fair indication that the material is gassing off, what hazards do vehicle cabin plastics contain, any, none ? I know for certain getting a whiff of melted or burned insulation when soldering electrical connections can make the eyes roll, done it a few times as I know some insulation material is highly toxic, hence the need for fume extraction when engaged in electrical repair work.
But there is another pollutant that is being kept quiet, the bloody computers we are all using to be on this forum, ever wondered what dangerous substances are in computers besides the plastics ;
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-poison.htm/printable
And guess what, we have a fan pushing the chemicals out into our enviroment, even our own breathing space as we sit there and read the latest evidence about how smoking tobacco is such a real health danger.
To me, the denigration of smoking is but a scapegoat for other problems that are so far being kept pretty quiet, quiet for not hitting the mainstream media and educating all those who do not want to think outside the box.
Oh, and yes I am a smoker, and an informed smoker at that, but do believe that if smoking was so dangerous, then I am all for the product being banned completely, that is not available for sale, just like DDT based weed killers were removed when they were found to be so dangerous to health.
Smoking is bad for you. There is no doubt left in anyone's mind that it is. Its effects are slow, insidious and take decades to wreak their havoc. Therein lies the real issue as well.
decades.
For the first 15-20 years, the immediate affects of tobacco can be undone in a rather short term. I know. I smoked for 18 years, quit, and a few months later was running 3-6 miles a day. By the end of that year, I'd hazard a guess that I was probably in the best shape of my life in terms of lung function, heart rate, blood pressure. That's saying quite a bit, honestly. I spent 4 years on a sea going search and rescue team and could swim miles and miles in those days, not to mention free dive for up to 3 minutes at a whack. Some of my best memories are of sitting 20-30 feet below the surface working coral off rocks and reefs with a diving knife and little else but a mask and snorkel and lungs full of air. Lungs that would shortly thereafter partake from one cigarette or another.
Having grown up in a family of smokers and tobacco growers though, I can tell you honestly that the cumulative affects are the real killers. There's no incidence of lung cancer among any of them, but heart problems plagued my grandfather from the time he was 50 until he died, and somewhere around 40-50 most of them settled into a sedate lifestyle that goes hand in hand with smoking too long.
Other than that, I saw very little ill effects from tobacco use. On the flip side, my father's family, in which almost no one smoked, was plagued with cancer deaths, bone, brain, prostate. Shrug.
What it leads me to think is that while much of the research surrounding tobacco is valid, it is also quite slanted and ignores a basic fact about humanity. Take cholesterol for example, only about 25 percent of the population can't process it properly. That percentage is much more prone to heart attack, stroke, all the issues that go with high cholesterol. And while anyone can develop those types of problems, your risk is significantly lower if your body does not possess the genetic defect that makes you unable to process it efficiently.
I think the same goes for tobacco. I think genetics plays a huge role in how your body responds and what disease ultimately grabs hold and doesn't let go. I think that is ignored in most research, tobacco or otherwise and done so intentionally. It's easier to present stark figures when you don't have to qualify them.
On the whole, I think eating processed food is about as dangerous as anything else. I know when I make something like, say peach cobbler, it's mostly peaches, sugar, vanilla with a crust topping. When I buy it, there's a laundry list of chemicals involved.
Again, shrugging.
About the only thing I can state with certainty is that we're all going to die. Having seen my share of folks pass in their 90's, and early 100's. I'm not sure I want to make it that far either.
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