Do you smoke?

NO i dont smoke! ( im a singing and all that BUT even when i wasnt i wouldnt i hate it soo much) Its fun that smokers get mad at you when you say they are addicted or when you ask to stop! Even though it should be the otherway around AND it maybe FEELS good but thats the addiction and you get sick for a while when you stop.. and if you have a headache or stress alot of people go smoking because it HEALS IT.... but it even make its worse..

The calculations.. well thats theory.. you didnt calculate all that things around it like sickness

Your comparison between cigarettes and cheeseburgers is nonsensical.

Having a healthy diet is basically filling all your nutritional needs without overconsuming or underconsuming one of them (respectively, fat and vitamins, for example). Healthy dinners have a distribution of those nutritional resources which aligns with our inherent biological needs. Unhealthy food (cheeseburgers) have a distribution of resources that doesn't align properly (too much fat, too little vitamins).

That doesn't mean that if you eat a cheeseburger you are automatically on an unhealthy diet. If you can fill the nutritional gaps, and go easy on the fatty foods (or work them off through fitness/physical activities), you can easily offset that cheeseburger and still have a healthy diet. No harm done.

One small cigarette only gives you a relatively small quantities of toxin, the body can indeed suppress the damage. The body gets that scale of toxins everyday from breathing in car fuels, etc.

But if you smoke cigarettes all the time (which you do if you're a daily smoker), you're overexposing your body to those toxins, the same way you would get 'overexposed' to fat by eating cheeseburgers all the time. But the cheeseburger's damage is easily (biologically speaking) reversed, by adopting a healthier lifestyle and getting physical activities to work off the extraneous amount of fat reserves. Cigarettes' damage is irreversible beyond a point. There's a reason they put 'smoking kills' on the package.

If you feel the same way smoking or not smoking by the way (or like you put it, 'don't feel better not smoking', which puts smoking as the default status for some reason), why even bother smoking? Unless you wanna look cool/tough, of course.

And like Tony says, when I eat a cheeseburger, I am keeping the damage to myself. But cigarettes actually damage people around you. If people want to live unhealthy, that's their choice. I have no problem whatsoever with unhealthy habits. I don't follow the worlds healthiest diet, I just try to make sure I get my vegetables and fruits, but sometimes I eat fastfood. My personal choice, and that's how most people do it. But when your habit increases the chances of disease of your family, your friends, random people in your area, that strikes me as selfish. I'm happy they banned smoking from public places, otherwise there would be smokers everywhere you go, no chance to hide but your own home.

Also, lung cancer is only one of the many, many conditions you can get while smoking. And you're raising the odds on every single one of them. It's like your playing on 100 tables at once in Las Vegas. They might all be low odds, but you're bound to 'win' somewhere. It's statistical truth.

No matter what smokers say, you can't make smoking a wise habit. Even if the health risks weren't THAT bad, I see no actual use of the smokes..

1) They're expensive.. When consumed in high amounts they're VERY expensive.

2) In addition to cigarettes being expensive, they don't really offer anything in return. It's money down the drain.. You spend your money and get what? Smoke in your lungs, a bad breath and a dead-looking skin. Ok, with the first ~10 cigarettes you get a one-minute head rush. And that's it. There's not nearly as much enjoyment in smoking that it would be worth paying for. (I know since I've smoked a bit at some point of my life, so I really can speak from experience. All this is SO not worth the money imo..

3)Smoking causes problems for the people around you, as well. Those who don't want to smoke, often have to passively breathe the poisonous smoke from others' cigarettes.. And if put in comparison, this might even be worse since the smoke goes straight to the lungs, without any filtering or such.

4)Smoking looks idiotic.. Okay, there are SOME people, who look cool with a cig on their mouth. These people are extremely rare.. Otherwise it just looks embarrassing when people walk around with a smelly wrap in their lip..

I did apply differences to my comparison, but if you don't want to read idc.
You can crack down any comparison if you take it that literally.

Harming other people with smoke is ridiculous. Smoking is prohibited in public places, and out in the open the harm is reduced to practically nothing. Actually, complaining about it would be worse for your health.

I think that every smoker has his own reasons why he smokes. Personnaly I really like it, smoking can be extremely tastefull. There are so many brands of tabacco, so many flavours, I really enjoy it. The best thing is after a good warm meal, you go outside for a while and let your stomach come to ease with the nice taste of a smoke.

Enjoying smoking is purely subjective, but I don't get why people complain about it.
They do not have the authority to decide what I can and can't do, if I don't harm them with it.

Smoking is expensive though, but I always roll my cigarettes, which costs me about 10 euro's a month.

We're just trying to show our points of view, we won't judge you.
But about taking things literally in your second sentence... how about your calculations? You took those minutes pretty literally.

we dont say DO this or DO that.... but it isnt wise.. that isnt a opinion its a fact...

Harming other people with smoke is ridiculous

Scientific consensus doesn't think so.

Tony* wrote:But about taking things literally in your second sentence... how about your calculations? You took those minutes pretty literally.

I was just using statistics to prove that smokers don't die that much younger (statistically). It's not literal.
I heard once that smokers are good for the economy because tobacco is so highly taxed, the taxes exceed the cost of the medical care smokers sometimes need.

Boomlala wrote:

Harming other people with smoke is ridiculous

Scientific consensus doesn't think so.

outdoors? please explain, this could be interesting.

Boomlala wrote:

Harming other people with smoke is ridiculous

Scientific consensus doesn't think so.

AND what annoys me the most is people saying: Then leave the room where people smoke.. even though it should be the other way around!! The non smokers are under fire MORE then the smokers even when they are the 'trouble' makers ( I can live with it even though i hate it but still)

outdoors? please explain, this could be interesting.

California's Air Resources Board went so far to call it a toxic air contaminant. They measured nicotine concentrations outside airports, colleges, government buildings, office complexes and amusement parks, they all had peaks of concentration comparable to indoor smoking areas.

Klepeis (scientist specialized in human exposure, http://neil.klepeis.net/research) researched city sidewalks, parks, ... also in California, and found that a distance radius of 2 feet surrounds a smoker wherein levels are comparable to indoor smokers. Sidewalk cafés have a radius of 13 feet around peak hours.

Study in Denmark showed that a smoker area outside a conference building under a roof contained a significantly high concentration.

fact sheet: http://www.repace.com/pdf/OTS_FACT_SHEET.pdf

It is interesting. I'll take it into account so I won't inconvenience non smokers.
It is also true however, that the time of the exposure outside is much smaller, and therefore less damaging. When you're going in a building for instance, you pass the smokers only briefly, and should be hardly exposed to the intoxicating substances found in the air. In contrary to actually be in a smoke filled room.
I didn't know the air around smokers was contaminated even outdoors, but I don't find these new studies' findings enough to ban smoking from streets and parks like I heard they're trying to do in NY.

In Belgium there is a lot of rumour about a coming law prohibiting smoking in cafés and pubs.
There's even protest against it from non smokers, as they call smoke in a café "tradition".
I think a café owner should be able to decide this for his own café, and when allowing smoking, he should put up a warning sign at the entrance or such.

What do you guys think about this?

I agree about cafés and pubs with you.. It's like banning the Ramadan because there are more Christians than Muslims. Smoking in those places has always been a tradition. However, smoking in restaurants and other places should stay prohibited. =p
and I thought that law is already in use.. but removed later because of all the complaints? (source please xD)
I saw that subject in "Vlaanderen Vandaag" (on VT4) that all bar owners are going bankrupt by it and non smokers just don't like coming anymore because their friends stay outside to smoke.

Falc0n wrote:AND what annoys me the most is people saying: Then leave the room where people smoke.. even though it should be the other way around!! The non smokers are under fire MORE then the smokers even when they are the 'trouble' makers

Exactly. Those who want to contaminate their lungs should practice it elswhere than in the presence of those who don't want to harm their lungs. Gladly so far, in my experience, most smokers are polite enough to step aside when there are non-smokers around.
Unfortunately this in not always the case. >.>

lone wrote:In Belgium there is a lot of rumour about a coming law prohibiting smoking in cafés and pubs.
There's even protest against it from non smokers, as they call smoke in a café "tradition".
I think a café owner should be able to decide this for his own café, and when allowing smoking, he should put up a warning sign at the entrance or such.

What do you guys think about this?

In Finland smoking is prohibited inside bars and restaurants. It's a relatively new law, and I'm so glad that it exists. It feels so much better to dine in peace without the terrible smoke everywhere around..
If a restaurant/bar has a special place for smokers indoors, they can go there. But the area must be leak proof so that the smoke doesn't come out of there and won't bother other customers.

All in all it's a very good law that should exist everywhere.

You know what kind of people also try to rationalize their bad habits? Drug addicts. To me, smokers are just a more accepted form of drug addicts.

I realize that alcohol is addictive, too. But alcohol is a completely different drug from nicotine. You won't get addicted to alcohol if you drink 1 - 2 beers a day. Smoke 2 fags a day however, and you'll surely get addicted to the nicotine.

Eating in a smoke filled room is for most non smokers (and even some smokers) annoying, the laws against this are good imho.
In Belgium it is atm prohibited to smoke in a bar where food is served. A smoker room can be created, but food cannot be served in that part of the bar.
The new law, prohibiting smoking in bars where there is no food served, will be at the latest in 2014. It is unkown (for as far as I found) when it will exactly happen. This will undoubtedly hurt the economy.

Xris² wrote:I realize that alcohol is addictive, too. But alcohol is a completely different drug from nicotine. You won't get addicted to alcohol if you drink 1 - 2 beers a day. Smoke 2 fags a day however, and you'll surely get addicted to the nicotine.

It is true that nicotine is more addictive than alcohol in the way that the addiction is much more easily developed.
An alcohol addiction is however much more severe because it's harder to lose. Also, alcohol addiction is often devastating for one's professional and social life, whereas a severe smoker doesn't usually encounter much social difficulties.
Drinking alcohol on daily basis is medically seen as abuse. And of course, the quantities are hard to compare and can definitely not be set equal.

Alcohol does a lot of harm too. It may be bit less addictive but it's physically more harmful.
For your livers' sake, don't drink alcohol.

lol cannabis is so innocent down there

alkyl nitrites?
:d

Sounds like something from my General Chemistry course.

It's poppers. Kinda gay drug.

Canabis should be legal

Indeed, at least it's less harmful and addictive then cigarettes.
xD