In this day and age, I am continually astounded that people smoke and take up smoking.
For some reason people these days think that it's pretty much okay to drink a lot of alcohol which is very expensive and very unhealthy, but if someone smokes here and there it's "crazy", "stupid" and "very expensive".
Nicotine itself has plenty of beneficial effects: http://www.gwern.net/Nicotine
Buying cigarettes means giving money to tobacco companies. I firmly believe these are an example of corporations bein evil - which I understand is a controversial opinion on HN.
The tactics (spread fear and misunderstanding; discredit your oponents) have been taken up by other campaign groups (eg, anti climate change groups) often using the same scientists for hire.
"Vaping" avoids most of the social stigma of smoking and if you buy carefully you avoid giving money to tobacco companies.
Nicotine on its own is vasoconstrictive. The compounds in tobacco smoke altogether are dialative. Tobacco smoke has MOAB agonists and aromatase inhibitors. Tobacco smoke lowers serotonin sensitivity while I don't think pure nicotine does this.
Vaping is really not a substitute for tobacco smoke as it is missing a bunch of chemicals.
Are you serious or did I miss a <satire> tag ?
Even if tobacco was perfectly healthy, it has other issues. It ruins your sense of taste, making foods bland. Many people dislike the smell. And smoking just one cigarette a day requires near-superhuman willpower. It would likely become an expensive habit.
Yes. I didn't argue for nicotine consumption through smoking.
>It ruins your sense of taste, making foods bland.
I don't think smoking one cigarette a day does this. Do you have a source for that claim?
>Many people dislike the smell. And smoking just one cigarette a day requires near-superhuman willpower. It would likely become an expensive habit.
I agree that smoking pack a day is pretty expensive and unhealthy. So if someone smokes a cigarette a day and doesn't start smoking more than that, then that person is smoking a cigarette per day. Some who smoke one cigarette per day will start smoke more, some will not.
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Mens_Healt...
You can find more with a simple search on Google. I used, "light smoking, dangerous".
There were lots of PSAs in that era about the dangers of smoking, so I think it was also partly a rebellion on my part, against "those stupid adults."
I've been very up front and unrelenting with my kid about smoking and other hazards. I think I've been successful so far. It helps that not that many kids smoke, so I think there's less peer pressure.
I think it'll take another generation or two before it's all but unseen.
I too am amazed that anyone takes up smoking. I see younger coworkers in their twenties out taking a smoke break, and I can't believe how such smart and gifted people can be so idiotic.
Not that I have it all together, I just don't smoke. Lots of other things I could improve on.
Maybe if we could better predict mortality rates due to smoking, and convey this in ads, people would realize how bad it is. Until they are faced with their mortality in a more brutal way, they will not change attitudes towards smoking. Changing bad habits is very hard. See how difficult it is for obese people to lose significant weight, and not relapse into obesity.
I think if we could accurately tell people about the effects of smoking at dofferent levels that might make a difference.
Smoking is apparently one of the leading cause of erectile dysfunction. Perhaps it's a sneaky trick to ise that, but if true it could help persuade some men to avoid smoking.
It reminds me of a Soviet political poster I saw about alcohol. It had the male symbol but the arrow was drooping. Funny and quick.
male ♂
Some people just seem to be wired differently and even a small exposure is all it takes. I think other addictions to [illegal] drugs are the same - smoking has a little less stigma since it is legal (but's it's certainly not socially acceptable like it used to be 'in the old-en days' when I was younger).
Got to love it when my friend goes on about how unsafe my motorcycling is while she is taking a drag.
My favorite bit about smoking, people will go into the gas station and buy a pack of smokes and a lottery ticket ignoring the near certain outcomes.
When I was in my teens, I went with some friends out and about and they all smoked. They told me I had to take small breaths to get used to inhaling the smoke. I tried it and felt the overwhelming fogginess it brought to my lungs. I was an athlete and immediately sensed how it was clogging things up. My lungs were trying to tell me something!
That was many decades ago and I have not picked up a cigarette since and never will.
I had a girlfriend who smoked. When we broke up, she said that the one thing she was grateful to me for was getting her to quit smoking. She said, "Everything smells better and tastes better and I don't run out of breath all the time."
I was great in bed, too.