I know of one advantage to tobacco consumption. If you are having an asthma attack and you don't have an inhaler, the next best thing is a cigarrette. I would not have beleived it myself but a respiratory therapist told me this. You see, nicotine causes your blood to thin, which in turn stops your airways from expanding. I was still skeptical about it though, even though an RT told me this, but one day I was having a pretty bad asthma attack and I didn't have an inhaler, but I did have a cigarrette. I was so desperate I had to try it, and it worked. At first it only seemed to make it worse. Nicotine also increases mucus membranes, so I started to caugh up a lot of clear mucus, but after about half the cigarrette was gone I could breath again and I had coughed up all of the mucus that comes from the inflamation of your airways. So it worked. Oh yeah, it also makes coffee taste better.

Good, now the next time some idiot gives me crap for smoking, I have my excuse. Not that I really need one, but I've often found it's much easier to placate these do-gooders than argue with them.

Amen to that.

Next time they do just put the cig out in their eye...You'd be surpised how quick they shut up......

Smokers rejoice come out and save the asthmatics


I've heard that drinking a strong cup of coffee works just as well

Mabye you wouldnt have asthma if you didnt smoke in the first place.

stick that in your pipe and smoke it

I've had asthma since I was two, but the only times I ever have trouble with it is when I am around dogs or excercising real hard. Cigarrettes have not ever caused me to have an asthma attack. Yes coffee does help, but only if you drink it black, and it takes awhile to work.

i don't think people are denying the health effects of cigarretes, its more a case of "We know what they can do, now stfu and let me have my cig in peace"

Joc...it was a joke...and Bathory is right...I am aware of the risks I work my 40+ hour week and I will have my damn cig in peace even if I have to bust a few heads. And look at it like this I could quit smoking, eat right and exercise and.... STILL DIE

And who picks up the bill for how much obese people cost the NHS? I say: TAX DOUGHNUTS

Have you ever seen somebody that has had a tracheotomy? I hate watching them smoke through the hole in their neck.

smokers cause me misery and distress. i hate that stinking plume of cancer dust i have to walk through at the entrance to buildings because now they all congregate there like a pack of rats around an old moldy hunk of cheese. its pathetic. i know you might enjoy your habit, but it shouldnt affect me in the slightest if you want to enjoy it. do it in your house and leave it out of my public places. don't do it around your children. stop polluting everywhere on the Earth with your used butts. nothing quite so idyllic as walking on a beautiful beach covered with cig butts from inconsiderate smokers, eh?

my grandma died a horrible death. it was so bad that i never forgot how absolutely miserable and pathetic she became near the end. she had throat cancer from smoking for years and years. whenever i visited her in the hospital, even as she was on her death bed, she would ignore all the family around her. instead, she was demanding one of us 'smuggle' cigs to her. she was consumed by the madness of the addiction and even on her deathbed she refused to stop. i still remember the joy she experienced when someone finally gave in to her wishes and brought her the cigarettes. she stood there in the open window, frail beyond words, and puffed her last plumes of smoke inbetween wheezes. she died soon thereafter.

you may think smoking is relaxing and fun, but if you saw my grandmother that day, you might think twice about lighting up that stupid cancer stick. do yourself a favor and stop while you can because the day will come when you cannot no matter how strong you are.

I have an idea! Just because I can die in many different ways, and I may not live to a ripe old age, and may not have to live with a horrible disease and have my family watch me die a horrible death, I will make my chances better for these things to happen by purposely partaking in an activity that can make me sick. You are a loser with a capital 'L' if you think this way.

It wasn't a personal insult to you as an individual, but everyone that has that opinion. The reason you are a loser if you think this way is because you potentially can lose out on many different things in life. Such as watching your children grow up, get married, have children of their own. You can also give diseases to your children by smoking around them. My grandmother used to babysit me. She was a chain smoker. Now I have asthma due to her second hand smoke, and I had bronchitis when I was younger. My grandmother now has dementia and lives in a retirement home. Part of the reason for her dementia is because the cigarrette smoke cut off her oxygen supply to her brain, and over time it caused her brain to deteriorate. She is very young to have dementia. There must be somebody that you care enough about to stop smoking. Do you really want for those important in your life to watch you die, or even be sick?

This is why you're a loser. You lose out. You lose.

maybe you should start a more ridiculous habit and die faster. heroin maybe? chewing glass shards? what about traffic dodging, now that is a rush. oh wait, ive got it.... teeth pulling. you wont need those someday because youre gonna die anyways. who the hell needs their health? i mean, we all are gonna die! let's be cool instead. nothing is cooler than not giving a damn about yourself.

come on man, get a little more creative with your self destructive behavior. its so cool.

rather than "Live fast, die young and leave a good lookin' corpse" your motto should be "Live irresponsibly, die old and suffering, and leave a haggard and hideous corpse". its much more fitting.

Ok what about all the needless deaths Alcohol causes from drunk driving, fits of rage and general stupidity and that's the deaths drunks cause.

Or the eventual deaths from preservatives in food, high fructose corn syrup, or growth hormones in meat.

Or take my job where I breathe in Aluminum dust, welding smoke, plasma smoke ,CCA sawdust, paint fumes and God knows what else.

Or how about the health fads that have nearly killed us or are causing harm...Years ago it was salt and sodium that would do us in, until they found the benifits of sodium in a diet. Or cholesteral before they found that there was benifical cholesterol. Or low carb diets that cause heart attacks or worse.

Then there is pollution, UV rays and other Nader type horrors.

No matter what you do todays society dooms you to cancer and horrible deaths. ANd yes I do smoke and yes I pklan to quit this year mainly due to the assinine taxes that have been placed on tobacco.

Heres another point to ponder, Will they stop at cigs?

Seriously after they ban tobacco and make it a thing of the past what next. Soda and fast food, candy, video games? All are unhealthy all can lead to health problems from too much use. Where will it end? If banning "unhealthy" products is the idea where will it end.

And before you say it won't happen 12 or so years ago you never would have though the tobacco issue would get this bad....

Thank you very much Billary

Ok people, I think everyone is aware of the health risks involved with smoking. Smokers above all seem to be more aware of the risks than those who don't. Another thing, comparing the health risks involved with smoking to heroin and other such drugs is completely out of context. If a person shot up as often as your average smoker lights up, they would be dead in a week. I have heard people say that when you smoke a cigarrette it takes a day off your life. This is ridiculous. Most people who die from smoke related diseases have been smoking for well over 15 years and not going a day without one. Here is a little interesting peace of info.

"Luckily, your lungs are good at bouncing back. After a few months off of nicotine, lung tissue rebuilds and breathing gets easier. Quit at the five year point and you'll regain all your lung function within a few years." -Dr. Edelman

Basically, if you don't smoke for more than five years it will not increase your risk of lung cancer, heart disease, or emphysema. People just smoke too much. If I were to enjoy one cigarrette a month I will probably not have any problems from it, but as it is most smokers will smoke at least 15 a day. People still get heart disease, lung cancer, emphysema, etc. if they don't smoke. On the other note some people smoke for 90 years and never have any problems from it. My great grandfather for example actually died after quitting. He was 98 years old and he had started when he was 11. He died by falling down some stairs. He was a very healthy guy for his age aactually, he would go bowling every two days, mow the lawn, work on the car, etc.

All that being said, no one should smoke. It is a really nasty habit and it can have seriously detrimental effects on your health as we all know. I would not recommend it to anyone. I had gone a long time without a cigarrette without any problems. Then I started having asthma attacks all the time. I eventually tried the smoking idea. That is how I started smoking again, and the only time I smoke is when I'm having an asthma attack, unless I have some albuterol.

apparently scientists discovered that the drug nicotene helps slow the onslaught of Altzhiemers . There you go thats a scientific argument for smoking , as for not smoking I gave up almost a year ago and I don't care wether or not I'm actually healthier for it .
I am no longer chained to it , I don't have to live by my nicotene induced time table . Smokers know how that feels .... nicotene levels dropping....... must have cigarette

And I don't have to any more , Yay for me . Oh and my health insurance is cheaper too .

how come tons of people in russia and china smoke yet smoking related illnesses in these countries are rare?

is it the tobacco or all the crappy chemicals that are put into fags that does it?

and yes americans many non gay men in britain have been known to puff on a fag!

lol

Babyforrest, masks only help to a point and where I work at in the plant is considered a low risk area so they are not available....go figure....

But on the whole I agree, There is far worse in the air than nicotine and the non-smoking Nazi groups needs to focus on that rather than eliminating a personal freedom.

Kismit, here is an odd fact for you. I work a 4 day week (10 hours a day) I smoke probbably 3/4 or more of a pack on days I work. However on days that I do not work I smoke maybe 3 cigs.

Hows that for odd......

And ambly I think you may have a point I do think the cig companies have added som chems to the tobacco. I have noticed that if I smoke a cigar or use a pipe it is different. In fact I went almost a whole year smoking a pipe once and I never had the problems I had with some cigs.....

More like driving in, breaks, lunch, driving home and then one later in the eveneing...thats at work. When I am off it's just when I feel the urge. now I may smoke more if I go to town or am working in the yard. I never smoke in the house either.

haha, im so happy that my employer has decided to enact an outdoor smoking ban over the entire campus. that means that smokers can't smoke anywhere but designated smoking areas that are well ventilated and no more smoking anywhere else- even sidewalks and streets. its like a giant 70 city block wide no smoking zone.

ive been secretly listening to all the smokers bitching about it for days. they are so mad. if they violate the new regulations, they will get a $70 fine and it will have actual enforcers wandering around writing tickets. poor smokers. im just glad i will only be walking through those smelly smoke plumes around the building entrances for a couple more weeks.

Removed comment. Due to not wanting to start a fight.

I cannot believe this conversation is actually happening. Smoking and second hand smoke makes people sick and it kills, it's an absolute scientific fact. Arguing this point is the mental equivalent to putting my head in a door jam and slamming it repeatedly. Here in Canada, it is all over TV, in the newspapers, and everywhere else that smoking is dangerous. We learned it in high school, had assemblies and tests on it. So the only thing I want to know now is: is the rest of the world oblivious to the harmfulness of cigarette smoke?

The reason cigarrettes (here at least) are so expensive is because the government taxes the hell out of them to pay for all the free medical care that smokers are going to require. Packages of cigarrettes have pictures of dying babies on them to show what smoking does to both born and unborn babies, children hooked up to respirators, heart attack and stroke patients, lung cancers, etc. Now there is a thread where people are actually arguing that cigarrette smoke is good for you? I can't take anymore.

babyforrest you speak the mind of all sane people, the problem is we live in a capitalist society which only cares about profit, and smoking is very profitable. Until we evolve our society past capitalism the money made from selling this plague will aways be more important than non-smokers health and rights

I'm not entirely sure it's a capitalist thing as much as it is a democratic thing .
My lungs are mine to do with as I choose . I have the right to get up and walk away from people who are smoking , I have the abillity to choose non-smoking bars and restaruants if I wish .
In a trully democratic society , so do the smokers have a choice to do as they wish with there lungs . Non-smokers rights arn't actually more inportant than smokers rights and neither does it work the other way around .
Trully there arn't any advantages to smoking and if you care enough about someone to try and get them to stop just tell them
' Go away , you stink '

baby forrest did u even read my post, apparently u cant tar all smokers with the same fag!

lol