One Mans Blog
Specialization is for Insects.
Posted on Jan 09, 2008 - 1:25am by John P. in Environment, Health & Fitness, Videos
I’ve written about smoking several times in the past because “…a billion people will die this century from tobacco-related illnesses….” And everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, so why is it that smokers just don’t give a crap?
Sorry, but as a sidebar… I know this person who is a smoker and also a die-hard environmentalist. Can someone please tell me how you can complain about me driving a gas guzzling vehicle when the production of cigarettes is causing massive deforestation along with the production of waste from consumption (including paper and plastic packaging and cigarette butts)? I mean seriously, if you smoke you don’t give a damn.
Globally, tobacco curing requires 11.4 million tons of solid wood annually, according to Geist’s study. Adding insult to injury, tobacco plants may replace the trees cut down and leach large quantities of vital nutrients from the soil.
Worldwide, an estimated 5.5 trillion commercially produced cigarettes were consumed in 1995 (the last year for which statistics are available) and 83% of cigarettes were filter-tipped. Filters and plastic wrap from packages remain in the environment for long periods. Cigarette filters contain cellulose acetate, which persists under normal environmental conditions for 18 months or longer. Moreover, cigarette butts pose a health hazard to children and animals if they eat them.
Anyway, back to the point at hand. I’ve assembled a nice little collection of videos from around the Web that focus on the effects of cigarettes. If you’re a smoker, feel free to go ahead and ignore these. It’s always better not to know whats coming…
This first one uses a couple of water jugs to capture the smoke from just one cigarette. Yummy!
These sound like a collection of British or possibly Australian public service ads. Quite interesting the way they show the effects of smoking.
This is a very good video that someone did as a school project:
Smoking causes actual pain throughout the body due to hardening of the arteries.
Here is something completely disgusting. When you get cancer from smoking this is what they are going to do to try to keep you alive:
Finally, a little comedy to “lighten” things up.
And always remember folks…
Having a smoking area in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
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Back in the 1950’s, yeah i’m old, I watched my grandmother die from lung cancer. As a 10 year old I was her favorite, and she always asked to see me. It was the greatest single lesson of the many she taught me. In the end, sallow, jaundiced, and delerious, we said goodbye, I was never tempted to try a cigarette in my life. The point is, if more people see the effects at an early age, it might help.
I agree with you, and I had a similar experience - though not at as young of an age.
The last time I ever saw my grandfather was in the hospital before he died. It was just the two of us in the room and he pulled me close and told me “I wish I had never smoked.” They were some of the last words I ever heard him say.
John
I’ve never been very tempted to try smoking, but I still found those videos pretty informative. Haha that last video was more on the surprising side than on the funny one for me. Maybe it’s because I read your comment that it was comedic and was trying to anticipate the humor.
I’ve always been of the opinion that cigarette smell disgusting, and it definitely makes me want to be somewhere else when I meet someone who has it on their breath.
I tried smoking once, I got a packet of cigarettes from my parent’s stash, and went to the back yard with a friend to try to light these cigarettes…. We made it through the packet of cigarettes somehow, but I have never been so sick in my life… And I NEVER tried again
Kim:)
I think it’s very easy to be sanctimonious and condescending about smokers if you have never smoked or never been addicted to a substance.
I was raised in a family of smokers when smoking wasn’t socially frowned upon so naturally I picked it up. I quit smoking 5 years ago - after many unsuccessful attempts - and it was harder for me than getting straight and sober had been 15 years earlier.
I don’t believe smoking is environmentally positive or good for you or not a public health problem - but I also don’t believe that most smokers “don’t give a damn” or ignore the consequences of their actions. They are addicted, plain and simple. Condemnation won’t make quitting any easier for anyone.
Waving around videos and PSAs and pictures of diseased lungs doesn’t have any more effect on a smoker than pictures of young women burned half to death has on an alcoholic who drives drunk. Constructive intervention is the only think that has a chance of working - and even then you are totally dependent on an addict’s desire and motivation to quit.
Maybe instead of being holier than thou toward smokers you should simply thank your powers that be that you never got hooked.
CJ,
I’ve re-read my article, but fail to see how you came to read my commentary as “sanctimonious and condescending“?
I don’t think I’m any better of a human being than smokers are, and I don’t believe I said anything to give anyone the opinion that I somehow look down upon them. I posed a question, “why don’t smokers give a damn?” I also made a statement that I don’t appreciate the hipocracy of smokers who claim to be environmentalists. In fact I said those people “don’t give a crap” about the environment, so I ask them to get off my case for not driving an electric vehicle or something.
I’m guessing that you mis-read my commentary, or perhaps projected some assumptions you made onto me, but I assure you I have no “holier than thou” attitude towards people just because they smoke. In fact, I put this article up for a whole group of close friends that smoke, but whom I’d very much like to see quit. They ALL know who they are! And I only took the time to assemble this post because I care.
Now, it may be your opinion that showing the effects of tobacco does no good - but the irrefutable fact is that for some people it does. Frankly, the only people I care about are the ones I know, and this article allows me to refer back to the detrimental effects and nag them persistently. And that is my method of “constructive intervention”.
John P.
evrybody who was never adicted to smoking should be very happy.
I am a smoker gave up for years, started again… yeah that sucks,
I never have a problem on long flights. I dont smoke in my diveshop the whole day, I go to restaurants with friends.. no smoking, but for whatever reason I don’t give up.
Those videos won’t touch any smoker, but non-smoker have something to talk about. Maybe I give it another try this year to become a non-smoker, but I love a black, strong-strong coffee and a cigarette at 6 in the morning watching the sun rising out of the deep blue ocean
Rhoody
I have always disliked smoking.I my self stopped my grandfather & uncle from smoking.In my family people always say that This is the “Anti Smoking guy”.
My favorite type of diacotomy is with vegtarians who have a tobacco habit..
I went out with a girl many years ago who would not have a hamburger - but smoked a pack a day.
I never really got a straight answer as to why she found the occassional steak more harmful then lighting up.
I guess the tobacco leaf is all natural, and plant based? (LOL!)
Robert C..