RE: O/T: DAMN CIGARTTES

[Lew Hodgett]

My ex wife turned 77 the first week of August.

The first week of September she died in her sleep of congestive heart failure and COPD directly attributed to 50+ years of smoking.

She had finally quit smoking about 12 years ago.

Understand her health had been on the decline for some time, was on oxygen, and had been to see her doctor about

2-3 weeks ago.

He indicated that there was nothing else that doctors could do.

Best guess was that she might have 6 to18 months left.

She died 2 weeks later.

GOD DAMN TOBACCO.

I have never used any drugs other than alcohol and tobacco; however, I'm convinced that tobacco is the most addictive drug on the planet.

I stopped smoking cold turkey in Jan 1978. It was a bear to quit.

The most difficult thing I've ever done.

If you are still smoking in this day and age with all that is known about the harmful effects of smoking, stop and think about what is probably ahead for you.

It may just help you quit.

Off the stump until I see the next person smoking.

Lew

[Gramps' shop]

You're absolutely right on about how tough it is to quit. I quit 8 years a go when it was discovered I had a substantial blockage in my left carotid. Quitting a 40-year habit was a bitch. The docs did a roto-rooter on the ca rotid and haven't had any problems there since. However, I was diagnosed w ith a modest bit of emphysema this year. Nothing that's slowed me down, bu t sooner or later that likely will kill me.

It seems like we need to get slapped upside the head to learn anything in t his life, especially when we're young and immortal.

Larry

[WW]

My ex wife turned 77 the first week of August.

The first week of September she died in her sleep of congestive heart failure and COPD directly attributed to 50+ years of smoking.

She had finally quit smoking about 12 years ago.

Understand her health had been on the decline for some time, was on oxygen, and had been to see her doctor about

2-3 weeks ago.

He indicated that there was nothing else that doctors could do.

Best guess was that she might have 6 to18 months left.

She died 2 weeks later.

GOD DAMN TOBACCO.

I have never used any drugs other than alcohol and tobacco; however, I'm convinced that tobacco is the most addictive drug on the planet.

I stopped smoking cold turkey in Jan 1978. It was a bear to quit.

The most difficult thing I've ever done.

If you are still smoking in this day and age with all that is known about the harmful effects of smoking, stop and think about what is probably ahead for you.

It may just help you quit.

Off the stump until I see the next person smoking.

Lew

Lew..you lost the wife at that age. Should have had many more years. I or my wife never smoked or consumed alcohol . My dad smoked for many years and had heart problems for many years before he died. WW

[Richard]

My condolences, Lew.

I finally quit seven years ago. It was a pure-D bitch to quit after 30 some-odd years. I'm 65 now and have COPD problems, of course. But my wife pushes me out the door to exercise.

Of all the foolishness in this brave new world, I had to get PERMISSION from my doctor to join a gym!

Shakespeare had a good idea - "First we kill all the lawyers".

[John McCoy]

"Lew Hodgett" wrote in news:541ccda1$0$41770 $c3e8da3$ [e-mail]:

You have my sympathy. My father died of the same thing, altho he only made it to 73, after many years of very limited mobility. He too had been a heavy smoker for much of his life.

John

[Larry Blanchard]

The addictiveness apparently varies. I quit 17 years ago after a minor heart attack and it wasn't very difficult. I did ask my cardiologist if I could have one cigar a month and after muttering he allowed that couldn't hurt me much :-). A friend of mine quit just because he got irritated at the price and also did it easily. Both of us had smoked since we were teens. I'm now 77 and he's 85.

But everyone else I know that quit had a heck of a time, just like you.

[Doug Miller]

"Lew Hodgett" wrote in news:541ccda1$0$41770$c3e8da3 $ [e-mail]:

My condolences, Lew.

My older brother started smoking when he was about 16 or 17 -- unfiltered Lucky Strikes -- and continued until he was 46, when he finally quit. He was diagnosed with cancer about three months before his 48th birthday, and told he might have only six *weeks*. He held on for about seven months before he passed.

I couldn't agree more. And God damn the tobacco companies, too, for continuing to market this killer weed.

[Bill]

I'm very sorry to learn of your loss, Lew.

Bill

[Lew Hodgett]

-------------------------------------------- "Bill" wrote:

----------------------------------------- My kids appreciate your thoughts about their Mom.

Lew

[Lew Hodgett]

------------------------------------------------ One thing is for certain, smoking is a self afflicted action that is known to bring on lung diseases.

Man controls whether he starts to smoke or walks away.

Lew

[krw]

How about "God damn your brother for poisoning himself"? It's no recent revelation that they cause cancer.

[Richard]

This is, of course, completely true. But there can be more to it.

I started smoking in basic training - basically peer pressure to "be a man". The first puff did me in.

And in the generation before me, EVERYbody smoked - at least the men. Common cover for bad breath? But I've heard the cigarettes themselves were quite different then.

But now? Anyone who smokes is a damned fool. That's for sure and certain.

[Leon]

Well if you are 60 or older or would have been and began smoking as a teenager the hazards of smoking were not fully known and there were no warning labels.

In the mid 60's Winston's tasted good like a cigarette should. That was on TV and everything on the TV was the truth.

[John McCoy]

Leon wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I think it was 64 or 65 that the Surgeon General's report defintively linked cigarette smoking and cancer. And a couple of years after that that warning labels and no TV ads were mandated.

But Doug makes a good point - from Joe Camel to the recent flood of fruit-flavored cigarettes (which were banned three or four years ago) the tobacco companies have gone out of their way to attract the young and impressionable.

John

[dadiOH]

Not the specific hazards, no but even in the 40s cigarettes were frequently referred to as "coffin nails".

There is no doubt that they are not good for you but I'm firmly convinced there is a genetic factor to illnesses derived from them. This has nothing to do with tobacco but a good buddy died about 20 years ago of stomach cancer. He was in his early 60s. His three brothers also died in their early 60s of the same thing. Can't be coincidence, not in my mind.

Still is, isn't it? On the web too :)

[upscale]

On Sun, 21 Sep 2014 08:15:36 -0500, Leon

I quit when I was twentyfive. That was thirty years ago. I can distinctly remember being in the backyard of my house and realizing that I was tired of the smelly fingers, sore throat and bad taste in my mouth.

After ten years of smoking it was actually quite easy for me to quit. People that I've told about my quitting frequently say that I wasn't addicted to tobacco of I quit so easily

[krw]

Oh, good grief. Cigarettes were called "coffin nails" and "cancer sticks" in the '40s and '50s, maybe earlier. The Surgeon General's warnings on cigarette packs started in 1966. That's 48 years ago. I'm

62 and can't remember a time when it wasn't a topic that wasn't in the forefront of the public conscience. Both grandfathers died from smoking and none after smoked. No, smoking causing death is not a recent revelation.

And "Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health" was printed in bold lettering on every pack. Life (and death) is about choice. Hopefully it will stay that way.

[Leon]

And the same of it all is that one day most of the population will have the same thoughts about McDonalds going out of their way to attract the young and impressionable. I can almost guarantee you the McDonalds and like kind fast food restaurants will cut your lives short too.

Pick you poison!

[Leon]

Like I said, if you are 60 or older the warnings were not there and not nearly the available evidence that there is today. For that matter coffee was considered and frowned upon for kids too. Similar hazards, stunted growth, developmental hazards. Darn fewer young adults smoke today than they did 45~50 years ago and the is mainly because of the more publicized studies.

Do you eat fast food or drink alcohol? Shame on you?

Tell that to a thirteen year old in 1966.

It was eventually printed on every pack but not before the mid 60's. My mother smoked and it was a topic that was talked about when the "May" be hazardous to your health label was added. It was not totally unlike the warning labels on gasoline pumps warning about leaded fuel being a hazard to your health.

[krw]

Baloney. As I said, I just turned 62 and the warnings have been around a lot longer than I have. My parents would have been 100 recently, and enough dangers of smoking were around when they were kids to not go there. Their parents, perhaps not so much.

No, I don't much like fast food (I do enjoy full service restaurants, though) and gave up all alcohol almost ten years ago. ...but that doesn't mean I eat a perfect diet (not by a long shot).

My parents did. I didn't smoke, nor did any of my siblings. It *is* possible to fight marketing. Because someone didn't isn't the fault of the marketers. The warnings *were* there.

As I said, 1966 but the issue was known at *least* decades before that. It shouldn't have taken a warning from the government to convince people it was dangerous. It didn't.