Where There's Smoke There's..........

Zealots? Now let me say this right up front if you are an anti-smoking zealot you probably aren't going to like this entry. So you may want to go read "How to impose my will on people that don't want it" on one of the other blogs.

I'll start by saying "Hi, I'm Barry and I'm an addict!" up until 2 years ago I smoked two packs a day for 42 years. I finally quit after a couple of attempts because it was getting harder and harder to breath. I smoked my last cigarette on May 28, 2007, and as a test of my resolve I keep two open packs on the top of my refrigerator still today.

As many of you know I started working out about 2 months ago and I do 3 miles on the treadmill three days a week plus lift weights to tone. Everyone has the Achilles heel and mine has always been my lungs. As a kid I had pneumonia 3 times and I burnt my bronchial tubes with a pesticide when I was in my middle 30's. Plus I enjoy working on cars and home improvement projects so I've sucked back more than my share of drywall dust and brake dust, probably 10 times what the average person might in their lifetime.

No, I'm not making a dating profile but I thought I give you some background that I understand respiratory problems and risks. I saw my Mother die from COPD and the associated treatment but I still defend a persons right to light up. Until the time our elected officials have the balls to give up the PAC and Lobbyist Contributions from the tobacco industry, and make smoking illegal I believe every adult over the age of 18 has the right to make a choice. Smoke or not smoke that is the question! I have several pet peeves when it comes to the smoking zealots and I thought I'd share them here with you.

The New Tobacco Tax:
Today President Obama's new tax on tobacco products went into effect. In levying this tax it does two things, it again puts an undue financial burden on those that earn under the median income in this country and secondly in doing so Mr. Obama has broken another campaign promise. During his campaign Mr. Obama promise not to enact any tax that will effect those earning under $250,000 annually.

The 62-cent tax hike on tobacco products to fund a federal children's insurance program became effective Wednesday. I admire his cause, and unlike local Legislators such as Governor Granholm here in Michigan who raises taxes on cigarettes every year to offset our financial crisis, I truly believe Obama's thought is funding for the children. I also believe that he might feel this extra cost may persuade some people to quit.

What he fails to realize is he is hurting those that can afford it the least. Thirty-four percent of the lowest income Americans smoke, compared with 13 percent earning $90,000 a year or more, results from interviews Gallup conducted as part of its Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index for 2008 indicated. Slightly more than half of today's smokers -- 53 percent -- earn less than $36,000 per year, while 35 percent earn between $36,000 and $89,999 per year, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency reported. Right now those people don't need any additional expenses because unlike the millionaires in Washington they are trying to survive.

The Smoking Zealot:
This is the guy that coughs furiously from 50 feet away when someone lights up, this is the guy that makes comments under his breath but never to your face, this is the guy that writes letters to his Congressman trying every year to get a ban on smoking. This is the guy that believes if you can smell it you're ingesting it and it will kill you, then splashes on enough cheap cologne to smother a small heard of elephants.

This is the guy, while talking to the hostess in a busy restaurant on a Saturday night and she asks "smoking or non-smoking?" he answers "non- smoking" but when she says "fine that will be about 90 minutes" his reply is "first available". What happened to all of the moral indignation and those health concerns there, Cochise? You non-smokers have 200 tables and we smokers have 15. Wait your turn.

This is the guy that will rattles off hundreds of statistics about how smoking cause everything from cancer to gout to athletes foot. But when you ask him where he got those statistics he can't quite remember? That's when you ask him if there are any known carcinogens in cologne, perfume, cosmetics or hairspray, and he looks at you like you have a third eye in the middle of your forehead. This is the guy that has no concept of how many PPM (parts per million) of airborne chemicals it takes to fill a room 10x10x8.

By and large, anti-smoking zealot is a weak willed sheep that hasn't had an original thought in 10 years. They think they are enlightened as they say second hand smoke kills people, then slam back 4 martinis and jump in the Beemer to drive home. Go figure!

The Medical Profession:
I love this next part 'cause it pisses people off. Back in the mid 1960's the United States Surgeon General came out with the statement that smoking cigarettes appears to promote lung cancer. Since that time the medical profession has taken this simple statement and given it a life of it's own. If you smoke and go to the doctor with a problem, more often than not you will hear the statement "well, you know you smoke." It doesn't matter if it's a sore throat, a hangnail, a hemorrhoid, or dandruff, you know you smoke? That has to be the reason!

When I grew up in the 60's, you're never going to believe this, but do you know what women did when they were pregnant? That sat around smoking and drinking all afternoon. Yep they didn't work and once the house was clean what else was there? So they got together and partied. Do you also know that as a kid I wasn't medicated? I didn't have behavior issues? I played outside? Those things all changed when pregnant women stopped smoking and drinking. After they stopped we became a society of ADHD and medicated babies. Oh well that's another topic....

Doctors have been shoveling this tripe about smoking causing cancer and much more for the last 40 years and the public has bought into it. First, let me say to the zealots, you do know that Medicine is not an exact science, right? That is why doctors say they "practice" medicine, it's a discipline not a science.

The second question I'll ask is, you know that there is no conclusive test for what causes cancer, right? No place in the journals of medicine will you find a single doctor or research scientist on record saying they have a conclusive test and proof that smoking causes cancer. What you will find is a lot of comments like: "Indications are, leads to the conclusion, all tests indicate, our testing suggests, and so on" No place have you found the words "The (blank) in smoke has been proven to cause cancer in every instance."

So you see all of the fussing is based upon suppositions, not facts. Now, I'll be the first one to say that smoking is a dirty, nasty habit. It does cause COPD, asthma, and other maladies of the lungs and respiratory system, no doubt but cancer? I'm still a skeptic. Then you say, "oh yeah well what about second hand smoke?" Second hand smoke is the answer to the question the medical profession could never answer, so they made one up. That question being: If smoking causes lung cancer how to you account for the fact that 40% of all lung cancer patients are non-smokers? To which for years they replied: Hmmmmm good question! Now the answer is second hand smoke.

See zealots here's the deal, most disease is caused due to genetics, DNA, that sort of thing. My Dad had prostate cancer so it's in the family, and I would not be shocked if someday I or my brother might be inflicted with it. It's in our DNA! Most disease occur because you have a predisposition for the disease not because of some outside stimulus. If this wasn't the case why would we have this raging debate over "stem-cell" research? The medical profession knows that more often than not Cancer, Diabetes, MS, MD, Parkinson's are all genetic based maladies.

Now I'm not so stupid to deny that cancer can be caused sometimes by foreign objects like asbestos, and yes cigarette smoke but it is not the leading cause. The leading cause is the genes that have been passed down generation to generation.

As with anything, sometimes a little information is a dangerous thing and most of the anti-smoking zealots are poorly armed. The interesting thing is they think they are the only ones that wield any weight. They don't think that the day will come where you can't bath in Channel or Old Spice, but if you started the ball rolling you only have control for a moment. Because just like you I can say if I can smell it, I must be ingesting it.

In closing, smokers quit if you can but quit when it is on your terms. Until then smoke 'em if you got 'em......