Poll: Does Anyone Smoke Cigarettes Anymore?

[Sojourner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DebER Probably because people who ER would rather drink it and flush it down the drain.

Yep, I'll cop to "drinking and flushing". IMHO, though, enjoying the occasional glass of fine Italian wine with dinner is a far, FAR cry from smoking dozens of cigarettes daily, blackening and scarring your lungs, and subjecting anyone nearby to noxious second-hand smoke.

[scrabbler1]

I agree this is a very lopsided poll result. I wonder how much less lopsided it would be had the question been, "How many of you smoked prior to the age of 30?" A lot of former smokers posted here.

[easysurfer]

My answer is no, to cigarettes and other things.

[Zona]

My mom, aunt, and grandparents all smoked. I saw the toll it took on their health and never picked up the habit. I was lucky in that most of my friend group in high school/college were also non-smokers. I think if you manage to avoid it in your teens/twenties it's not a habit you are likely to start later in life.

[6miths]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scrabbler1 I agree this is a very lopsided poll result. I wonder how much less lopsided it would be had the question been, "How many of you smoked prior to the age of 30?" A lot of former smokers posted here.

Agree as well that it is lopsided and happy to see it. It would be interesting to see whether and how much the percentages are different from matched controls with the difference in the groups being FIRE'd (or posting on early-retirement.org more accurately).

[Bamaman]

Only friend we.had that.smoked died of lung cancer last year--no kidding.

[6miths]

And courtesy of the CDC some figures. Smoking rate is 8.8% in those over 65, 7.7% in those with an undergraduate degree and 4.5% in those with a graduate degree. It is also half as high in those living above the poverty line compared with those below it. I suspect that most of the posting group is significantly above the poverty line.


https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_sta...king/index.htm

[mystang52]

At some point in the 80's my older brother watched a blunt video, from his employer, describing the long term effects of smoking - especially the horrible existence suffering from bad emphysema. He, and his wife, quit cold turkey immediately afterwards, and never smoked again.
I haven't seen them in a while, but in the last few years some NY State health agency was running a series of equally blunt TV commercials depicting the horrible effects of long term smoking. If I was still a smoker, I think they would have scared me enough to stop.

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mystang52 At some point in the 80's my older brother watched a blunt video, from his employer, describing the long term effects of smoking - especially the horrible existence suffering from bad emphysema. He, and his wife, quit cold turkey immediately afterwards, and never smoked again. I haven't seen them in a while, but in the last few years some NY State health agency was running a series of equally blunt TV commercials depicting the horrible effects of long term smoking. If I was still a smoker, I think they would have scared me enough to stop.

You don't understand addiction. No offense intended. You don't quit, cause it makes sense. Otherwise there would be no addicts.

A good friend of mine(an ex-smoker) lost his wife to COPD related illnesses. On her way from intensive care to hospice she begged for her cigarettes. It's not like one more was going to hasten her death, except she was on 100% oxygen and that may have been an issue.

[mystang52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRG You don't understand addiction. No offense intended. You don't quit, cause it makes sense. Otherwise there would be no addicts.

No offense taken. Earlier in this thread I mentioned I quit smoking after only 3 1/2 years of having done so, Quitting for me was relatively easy, but the urge for a cigarette lingered on for a very long time. I don't doubt for a second the difficulty for a longer term smoker.

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mystang52 I don't doubt for a second the difficulty for a longer term smoker.

I smoked, and quit one day....went to the local pub with the sales group for lunch......someone offered me a cigarette and I said "I don't smoke".

DW's daughter's husband smoked......he quit, but it was very difficult for him, (patches, the whole shmeer), yet he's more focused than I am.

Differs from person to person.

[Oz investor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRG You don't understand addiction. No offense intended. You don't quit, cause it makes sense. Otherwise there would be no addicts. A good friend of mine(an ex-smoker) lost his wife to COPD related illnesses. On her way from intensive care to hospice she begged for her cigarettes. It's not like one more was going to hasten her death, except she was on 100% oxygen and that may have been an issue.

smoking AND 100% oxygen IS likely to hasten death , depending on the severity of the result the death toll may easily exceed one .

it is not the nicotine and toxins that make the difference in this case it is the naked flame and the oxygen .

[robnplunder]

I stopped smoking after my younger brother (RIP) was diagnosed with cancer.

[O2Bfree]

Nicotine addiction can be tough to break, for sure. My dad's best friend smoked for years and ended up getting oral cancer. He had several surgeries to remove half his tongue, various sections of other flesh in his mouth, and then half his jaw. The surgeons took large patches of skin from his forehead and leg to use as grafts in his mouth, so the guy was pretty scarred up. He also had to deal with leg hair growing inside of his mouth. Yet he didn't quit smoking until after the third surgery. By then the cancer had spread and he died a couple years later.

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by O2Bfree Nicotine addiction can be tough to break, for sure. My dad's best friend smoked for years and ended up getting oral cancer. He had several surgeries to remove half his tongue, various sections of other flesh in his mouth, and then half his jaw. The surgeons took large patches of skin from his forehead and leg to use as grafts in his mouth, so the guy was pretty scarred up. He also had to deal with leg hair growing inside of his mouth. Yet he didn't quit smoking until after the third surgery. By then the cancer had spread and he died a couple years later.

I watched a cow*rker deal effectively with a serious cocaine addiction, gave it up on his own. Guy continues to smoke cigarettes. He confided in me giving up cocaine was hard, but nicotine was impossible.

He eventually did give it up after we lost a friend to lung cancer. Chantix and counciling were involved. He claimed nicotine was much harder than cocaine to quit.

I was a tobacco chewer and smoker. Quitting cigarettes was easy compared to chew. Wasn't that I wanted to chew, the withdrawal from chewing was much more difficult for me, as I had chew in my mouth most of the day. There was a time when I was on high doses of Oxycontin for several months and became physically dependent upon them. They were much easier to get away from then chew.

[Dash man]

I’ll never forget the impact on me in junior high when a teacher brought in a slice of a lung from a smoker and a slice of lung from a non smoker. I harassed my parents to no end to stop smoking. DF quit, but DM couldn’t quit until she died. At least she knew better than to smoke in front of me.

[Lawrencewendall]

I roll pipe tobacco in cigarette tubes. How do I answer?

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lawrencewendall I roll pipe tobacco in cigarette tubes. How do I answer?

Assertively!

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lawrencewendall I roll pipe tobacco in cigarette tubes. How do I answer?

This is the kind of thing I love about this forum.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lawrencewendall I roll pipe tobacco in cigarette tubes. How do I answer?

Between coughs.