Smoking Is Not Dangerous

[monkeymax]

I think smoking is extremely unhealthy for me and can possibly send me to an early grave.  Smoking almost sent my father to an early grave 3 or 4 times in his life.  But for other people, I don't know.  Each person in this world has their own body which is different from the bodies of everyone else in this world.  Some people can take alcohol and some people can't.  Some people are allergic to this or that.  Some people are born with eczema.  Some people can eat Mcdonalds everyday without gaining fat, some people can't.  Some people can probably take inhaling poison aka cigarette smoke while people like me, can't. 

[mouser]

That still means less than 1% of the total die each year (about 0.74%).

So you're saying that even if I made an error in my math (which wouldn't surprise me -- I suck at math), it still comes down to essentially the same result: a less than 1% chance that you will die from smoking. Correct..?

No. There's a less that one percent chance that you will die THIS YEAR from smoking.  But you live more than one year, so the chance of you dying increases with the number of years that you live.

To keep the math simple, let's say a 1% chance you'll die this year. That means a 99% chance that you won't die.

Now let's say you live (and smoke) for 50 years. The chance smoking will NOT have killed you (it's often easier to figure out the odd of something not happening) is .99^50 or 60.5% 

Meaning a 39.5% chance smoking will kill you. If you drop the chance to only 1/2 of one percent, you still come out with a 28% chance that smoking will kill you.

[Tessera]

Meaning a 39.5% chance smoking will kill you. If you drop the chance to only 1/2 of one percent, you still come out with a 28% chance that smoking will kill you.

Your math is of course arbitrary. But okay, I'll go along with it.

It still means that you have less than 50% chance of dying from smoking, even after 50 years of non-stop smoking.

Which is pretty much exactly what I said... about ten posts ago.  

[mouser]

Meaning a 39.5% chance smoking will kill you. If you drop the chance to only 1/2 of one percent, you still come out with a 28% chance that smoking will kill you.

Your math is of course arbitrary. But okay, I'll go along with it.

It still means that you have less than 50% chance of dying from smoking, even after 50 years of non-stop smoking.

Which is pretty much exactly what I said... about ten posts ago.  

What's arbitrary is why smoking is legal while other, less dangerous things are not. (and I'm not pushing for making smoking illegal, even though it's killing everyone's health care premiums).

I have yet to meet a person who chains smokes two packs of joints a day...

[Tessera]

Marijuana is not physically addictive, that's why. Nicotine, on the other hand, is one of the most addictive substances on the planet.

[otaku686]

Marijuana is not physically addictive, that's why. Nicotine, on the other hand, is one of the most addictive substances on the planet.

This. A thousand times this. People are so uptight about weed, when nicotine and alcohol are obviously much more addictive and detrimental.

[snickaz92]

Not to mention there worse stuff in the air right now.

this!

[Master Fung]

Just thought i would throw my personal experience into the mix.I smoke cigs for about 20 years.Near the tail end of this venture i was always tired and coughing every morning and what not.About five years ago i switched to vaping.Within 3 weeks my coughing had stopped and i noticed i felt a lot less winded.This is not a sales pitch or anything i just thought i would put it out there.

[hahahafuckyou]

I don't smoke because I am poor So please let me enjoy my dream that I'm doing it for health reasons, mmkay?

[Krylancelo]

I'm not a big fan of smoking, mostly because I don't like the smell... Probably because I dated a smoker for awhile and just ended up disliking it.

But I'm also not the type to tell people what to do. I'm fine with anyone (or everyone) smoking if s/he chooses to do so. Same with other drugs of basically any kind, as long as they aren't getting behind a wheel while high or drunk... More power to them in my opinion.