ohhh Esky my dear esky, as I said in the original post:

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now I don't want to place this quote out of context (if this is indeed the context the writer meant)..

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as I said here, I didn't want to place your post out of context, and I am by any deed sorry if that seemed so to you.

@Stinger, how did you guess that I am a smoker?? was it the attitude??

well as I said above, it is my firm belief, not only because I am a smoker, but also because I did biology, that smoking isn't the thing that does the most harm.
hell no, I saw an article in a book I had about the sunject (book is quite old, 14 years if I am correct) with a few questions about it, it portrayed an 80 year old woman (I have to say that she is/was from Kenya)and that she was one of the most healthy beings that doctors saw. Sure ciggarette smoke has a few carcinogenics in them, but at the amounts they are within the ciggarette smoke, it is hardly believable that they could cause cancer at all, bearing in mind the healing capabillities that our bodies have. car exhaust gasses however, contain more of said carcinogenics and in higher doses, car exhaust also contains the, what we call "vliegas" or flying ashes literally translated. these are bulbs of ash, forming a cloak, a cloak for smaller pieces of ash, point being that these things can cause much more harm (dust lung) then the insanely small amounts of carcinogenics in ciggarette smoke

Meh, all sides to any arguement can point out differences, it totally depends on your sources and what you read. I don't believe everything i read verbatium at all, and have read many sources. I myself used to smoke around 20-40 a day - with the amount increasing as i drank more. I am not dead, but i have noticed the lack of cough, and the lack of heart palpatations i used to get (which were really bad at some points- to the range where i couldn't stand!), and after having had bronchitis twice in a year i now have no coughs, palpatations or other stuff. So it does affect your health somewhat....BUT

My great grandmother lived until she was 94. She drank around half a bottle of gin a day, and smoked about 15 fags a day for the last ten years of her life!! A right old battleaxe, she lived to see her great grandchildren...which is a rare thing, even in modern times (she died back in the eighties). She also smoked her whole life.

Above all, everything INCREASES the chances of things developing! Smoking INCREASES the risks of heart disease/lung cancer/throat cancer/mouth cancer and all the other forms etc.

Personally i think some people are naturally more liable to contract or develop conditions - like cancer. They say breast cancer runs in families etc - same for ALOT of medical conditions.

I oppose smoking, but not because of the health risks- because it stinks !
Besides, it uses up value money, which is far better spent on the bare essentials, like M&Ms ,cheese and mousepads.

My Gran Died early last year from a disease which fills the lungs with fluid (can't remember the name) which the doctors said was caused by her 20 a day habit.She was 65 and could have lived a lot longer if she had kicked the habit.

I don't mind it when people smoke at home, but it's pretty ****ing anti-social when you force the people around you to breathe in some foul smelling crap that's already been through your body. When I'm walking someplace, I prefer it if I'm not walking into clouds of bad smelling smoke smacking me in the face as the guy walking a few feet ahead puffs away. Non-smokers really don't appreciate going home to find that their clothes reek of ciggie smoke and if you wear contacts, the smoke can seriously irritate the eyes when particles get trapped under.
As for whether or not it truly affects your health, it seems 50-50 to me. I worked in a newsagent for 4 years, among the older cigarette customers about half of them would come in wheezing and coughing up their lungs. They'd have ragged yellow fingernails and yellow/brown teeth. Sometimes you could smell them coming before you saw them. The other half would have similarly bad teeth but at least weren't going to die on the shop floor.
So smoke all you like, just keep it out of my face.

i would recomend switching to cigars or a pipe for anybody who smokes.
they are much healthier, though they still pose health risks it is much lower since youre smoking pure tobacco instead of a little with a ton of deadly chemicals like methane, carbon monoxide, arsenic, and hell there's even plutonium in that ****. i say who the hell wants explosive tobacco(methane and plutonium) rolled in paper. cigars are more expensive however the laster longer, 1-2 is plenty. pipes are cheaper as you buy it once then buy the tobacco which isn't too expensive. plus they're both less repulsive and even may make you look good(pipes=wise, cigars=rich)

Loc - Apology accepted. I apologise also, yesterday was NOT a good day for me. You know how it is .

My big question is: How do you enjoy inhaling toxic fumes? That's stuff's disgusting. Well, to each their own, I guess. I've got friends who smoke and respect my decision not to. Cigarettes ARE a health risk, but somehow they affect some people more than others. Some people can smoke three or four packs a day, and don't have a problem. Others, if they smoke 1 cigarette a day, it could kill them. Each person is built differently, and because of that, they're susceptible to one thing while pretty much unaffected by something or anything else. That's just how we are.

"Guns don't kill people....I DO!!"

Pipes - definite link to mouth and throat cancers. Likewise cigars, although not quite as much prevalence as with pipes.

A variant, is chewing tobacco, and snuff. Both have a high cancer rate, so the theory that on cigs can give cancer is false. Those chemicals are in a lot of products. And, mouth cancer is not a pretty sight.

Chewing tobacco or putting a pinch in your mouth, can rot your gums pretty badly as well. It can cause diseases including cancer that may eat up your jaw.

I smoked up until a year and a half ago and I can totally see Loc's point of view, the constant harassment that smokers cop from non-smokers really gets on your bloody nerves. Smokers aren't stupid, they know it's bad for them but it is such a pleasurable past time that most smokers just don't want to quit, plain and simple. I know I didn't, it took me ages to get to the stage where I wanted to quit, even then it was a struggle. What's more I could go back to it so easily, I even still dream about smoking.

Everyone who argues that smoking is not bad for you is full of crap, but I never lay a trip on anyone about it. You know it's bad for you, I know it's bad for you but it's totally your choice to keep on doing it and more to the point, no one is going to convince you of it otherwise. In fact if you try to convince a smoker to give up, it only makes them more determined to keep at it, so don't even bother. They'll give up when their good and ready, if they never do then that's their choice, not anyone else's.

non-smokers don't appreciate the pleasure of smoking cos mostly they're exposed to cheap nasty cigs which form the bulk of today's tobacco consumption. However, when even the mpst rabid anti-smoker is exposed to quality tobacco, they will usually grudgingly admit that it does at least smell rather pleasant. Pipes tobacco as most people know is available in a vast array of flavours and can produce wonderful aromas, as can fine cigars (such as genuine Cuban Romeo y Julietas) and there are many fine cigarette tobaccos, such as true Virginia Leaf (my own personal favourite) and Blakan Sobranie. Recently while on me hols i have been smoking tombac, an aromatic relative of tobacco, through the hookah pipes (not hashish as is popularly believed) and its really rather nice, very cool and pleasant, i like the jasmine flavours best.

Now i don't want to build up smoking, 'tis a bad habit and not good for you, but bear in mind that many of us who do smoke do so in full knowledge of the risks and just want to be left alone and not have a p-c nanny state telling us what to do and suffering health fascists treating us like criminals.

I quit nearly a year ago now, and whilst i do enjoy the benefits of feeling better, and sleeping better........I miss my ciggies ALOT, and I mean ALOT. I still get cravings, but they are easier to supress....however, they are still just as violently strong in testing willpower.

If it wasn't for the money issues, or the fact that unfort i cannot do anything in reasonable amounts, then i would start in a second - as i loved my ciggies. However, I used to easily get through 20-30 a day with no probs at all.

The main factor wasn't even my health, it was the money. I knew it was killing me, I taught school kids how bad smoking was for you, with graphic vids etc - and as soon as the lesson was over i would sneak into the boiler room and spark one up .

The bit is also that you don't really think it will happen to you until your "older" too. I may die of cancer when i am 65 due to smoking was what i thought, but i also planned to quit in advance. Anyone who smokes, if you told them tomorrow they had a tumour and would die, then they would rue the day they started smoking, but in all honesty, its not you don't believe it will be you, but that you don't believe its that soon!!