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© Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
A couple of friends of mine think that smoking does not cause cancer. One of them even says that smoking toughens up the lungs, so they tend to be healthier than a nonsmoker's lungs.
The truth is, smoking causes lung cancer (as well as heart disease, emphysema, and death). This does not mean that everyone who smokes gets cancer. Many do. Saying that "smoking causes cancer" is like saying "Russian Roulette causes death." You are by no means certain to die from Russian Roulette. But, when that bullet passes through your brain, your relatives will know that you were killed by Russian Roulette. There is a direct cause and effect. But not everybody dies.
The cigarette companies hired "scientists" to say that smoking does not cause cancer. These "scientists" did not follow normal scientific methods to demonstrate cause and effect. They lied, often under oath. See How To Lie With Statistics - by Darrell Huff (The best book ever written).
I am a fairly militant nonsmoker. I feel that if someone blows smoke at me, I should be able to call the police and have the smoker charged with attempted murder. I think that the grocery store checkout person, who sells a pack of cigarettes, should be charged with attempted murder.
A little smoke doesn't hurt much. A person recovers fairly rapidly. But over time, second-hand smoke can apparently kill (according to studies). I honestly consider smoking in public attempted murder (as well as suicide).