Smoking doesn't cause cancer!

You know how they say kids who grow up with parents who smoke are more inclined to pick up the habit? For me, that was untrue.

My father smoked cigars and a lil' of the bud, but was very opposed to cigerettes. He forbid my mother to smoke her cigs. I love my dad, but what hypocrisy.

After his death, my mom dug out the smokes quick. She's been smoking since 1975. She's much more laid back than he was, for the record.

For years I was opposed to her smoking. I would hollow them out and destroy them every chance I got, to her great chagrin. What a little arsehole I was, though I just love/d her and wanted her to be in perfect health, especially after losing dad. I was a kid, though, and didn't understand her stress.

Around the time I got my first car - at 15 - I was the kid who hauled the rest of 'em around. As I said before, I had always been opposed to smoking, but all my friends from CHURCH/YOUTH GROUP smoked. After hanging out with those kids, driving 'em around, guess what? It finally got the better of me. I looked at my co-pilot one day and said, "give me one of those." I was a nominal smoker for a few years, keeping a pack in my glove compartment for one every now and then. I never smoked at school (we had a smoking area) because I never even thought about it. Eventually, though, I became a 1 pack a day smoker. By the time I was playing sports in college I was up to about 1 pack and a half to two packs of Marlboro reds per day. Try smokin' that many cowboy killers and starting at forward on your soccer team! By the time I went into the Army I was smoking maybe even more. I had to quit, though, to go through BASIC. Looking back, I should've never picked them up again. But alas, I do enjoy smoking. Can't help it. I did have to give up the Reds for lights when I was in the Army. Airborne and smoking aren't the most compatible combination. I'll tell ya this, though, had I not had my smokes out in the middle of bumfruk Arabia (during the Gulf war) I woulda gone NUTS! It was one of the few ways to relax and pass the time.

I'm not suggesting anyone take up the habit, though. Apart from health issues, it is insanely expensive. I could've traveled the world three times probably with the money I've spent. Think about that before you pick up that un-needed habit.

Anyway, as it all shook out, my brother, like my dad is a sometimes cigar smoker, but HATES cigerettes. I, like my mother, smoke. (But it had nothing to do with her.) I am much more laid back than he will ever be. He detests his memories of growing up inhaling her smoke. As a matter of fact, the last time we got into an actual fistfight was over my smoking in the house. (I didn't smoke around my mom. She was asleep and he thought he'd wake her up and get me busted. So, I had to deep-six that. I punched him in the eye and then felt horrible afterwards. He didn't deserve that.)

It was not, though, my mom's fault that I started smoking. It was my youthful idiocy and the influence of my friends.

If you've never smoked, than DON'T start. It's NOT worth it! Stay as healthy as you can and put your money towards more intelligent and useful things.

first and formost id like to say i smoke...now on to the impotant thing here..smoking may or may not cause cancer but smoking is blamed for everything these days just like alchol was in mid 20s lets think about this ...mabey smoking is a way for the goverment to blame somthing other than the chemicals they pump in the air!!!i have worked with many chemicals in my life and as i go along in my career more and more of these chemicals get banned cause they are cacenogins(sp)but i have used them up until then so i was at risk without even knowing...so what do we do about this hmmmm blame smoking yeah good idea!!!!!!! knowledge...the more u know

Originally posted by EastCoastKid
If you've never smoked, than DON'T start. It's NOT worth it! Stay as healthy as you can and put your money towards more intelligent and useful things.

i dont smoke and never plan to, its seems so pointless!
you spend lots of money making yourself ill.

I still think smoking cause cancer.

Lately, there was this women who sued a big cigarette company, cuz her husband died of cancer after smoking for like 40 years, and she won her case and got some crazy ammount like 20 millions I think.

If it doesn't cause cancer, then why do cigarette company let the governement put all those nasty pictures and message on cigarette pack?

Do people claiming Cancer is entirely "caused" by genetics even understand the term 'carcinogen' ?

I think we need to give up this futile debate.

Cancer, like so many other things in life rely on a number of variables. They have to be met in order for something to happen. I can't die in an airplane crash just because I have the ticket to board the damn thing.

It is shown that a genetic predisposition for cancer does exist. It is also shown that some, if not most, chemicals in your cigarette can be linked to certian cancers. Furthermore, you can point to toxic exuast fumes from your SUV, asbestos, arsenic-laced splinters from your child's playset as all causes of cancer.

It cannot be said that only one of these factors is a root cause of the big C. Rather it is a combination of them that puts us at risk. So smoking does cause cancer, alongside many other variables.

Remember, you can't die in an airplane crash by just having the ticket. You have to use it to get on the plane.

(Takes a long, satisfying drag off a Newport.)