Smoke screen

[TO Kid]

Smoking is under attack as never before. Today, the Government is expected to publish a white paper proposing restrictions on smoking in public places in England and Wales. Meanwhile, the Scottish Executive has agreed on a "comprehensive ban" on public smoking. Promoting the Scottish ban on the Today Programme, the country's deputy health minister, Rhona Brankin, declared "One in four of all deaths in Scotland is directly attributable to smoking." In a separate interview she said "one in four of all deaths (is) attributable to smoking. About 13,000 people die every year as a result of smoking." She was wise to omit the "directly" that sneaked onto Today.

The most recent statistics reveal that 57,382 people died in Scotland in 2001. If one in four of them died for the reasons Rhona Brankin offers that would give a smoking-related death toll of 14,345, not 13,000. So is the minister guilty of modest exaggeration in the service of a noble cause? The one- in-four statistic is more than that; it is an article of faith among anti-smoking campaigners, but it is not as straightforward as it sounds.

These are not just lung-cancer deaths. Brankin's toll includes every Scot who has died of "smoking-related complaints." To get into that category alleged victims of smoking do not need to have smoked. They are counted in on the basis that killers including heart disease, strokes and bronchitis can be caused by smoking. Nobody checks the lifestyles of the victims to ascertain that they did smoke.

Some of these dead Scots did smoke, but died at or beyond the average Scottish lifespans of 73 years for men and 78 years for women. The same applies to many of the 140,000 English men and women whom the leading anti-smoking charity, ASH, asserts die each year as a result of smoking. ASH justifies including them on the grounds that deaths from smoking can follow years of painful disability and are thus worth preventing, even if they have not technically shortened a life.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=583218

You mean government officials lied to the public in an effort to curtail the use of a substance? I'm SHOCKED, SHOCKED I say!

[Warpy]

1. Consider those years of painful disability

My mother spent over 20 years fighting for every breath she took until she died last year.

Cancer is the easy way out. It generally kills within a couple of years, at most.

Heart disease and emphysema cripple people for decades until they finally succumb. It's slow and agonizing way out as the person loses the ability to breathe, or slowly drowns in his own fluids.

And yes, these people should be included in smoking deaths, since they were dying for such a long time.

[TO Kid]

2. So when a non-smoker dies...

You really believe that the death of a nonsmoker from heart disease should be listed as "smoking-related"? You really think that telling lies is good for the cause of public health? You'd be in good company with the Drug Warriors who advised parents to lie to their kids.

[realisticphish]

3. no it shouldnt

be automatically listed as such. but if it WAS directly, or even indirectly, smoking related, then it should most certainly be listed


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[TO Kid]

4. That is precisely what the antis are doing

They are counting ALL deaths from illnesses that are allegedly "tobacco-related" as being caused by tobacco without asking any lifestyle questions. Whenever a non-smoker dies of heart disease, the anti-tobacco policy wonks count it as a death cause by smoking.

[cheezus]

5. chist, they won't let me masturbate in public either

and that HARDLY ever hurts ANYONE!

[Cowboy Joe2k]

6. Kick this as fast as you can!

Kick this. This is all we hoped for this is what the world needs tied up in a bow. For the holiday this is what the world needs now. entire world Peace. Kick this if you ever thought you were free. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...2&mesg_id=79652

Kick this every chance you get least you wined up kicking the damn thing for ever. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...2&mesg_id=79652

Kick this. this is the one little bit of information that can save the world.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...2&mesg_id=79652

I may have bargained a solid argument to avoid getting stuck in this damn contraption.