From an Orlando FL firefighter:
“I can’t count the number of times I got called out to a trailer where somebody is on oxygen, there are ashtrays piled up to a point with cigarette butts and the person goes “I CAN’T BREATHE!!!”"
Clearwater, Florida - A nursing home patient (woman 76) lights up a cigarette while on oxygen, ignites a fire and dies.
She already had numerous pulmonary problems and was diagnosed with lung cancer, yet managed to cheat death time & time again until now. Her daughter has been warning her for years about the dangers of smoking while on oxygen “Someday, you’re going to blow yourself up!”
Smoking was banned inside the nursing home, but was allowed outside. Fortunately, noone else nor the nursing home was harmed, however evacuation of the facility was required by law.
This is certainly not the first nor likely the last time a patient smoked while on oxygen or SWO, and set themselves on fire. This is the power of addiction! Good enough reason to quit cigarettes A.S.A.P.!
Nicotine doesn’t suppress the appetite. That’s an old myth. All it does is gives the smoker something to fiddle with and stick in their mouths. Part of anti-smoking therapy is that it gets bluntly pointed out to the smoker that they’re reverting to babyhood, always needing a nipple in their mouth. People who quit without realizing the triggers tend to snack more, usually on junk food.
The most commonly cited reason for women not wanting to quit smoking, is the fear of gaining weight.
Why do people still smoke inspite of today’s education and knowledge of how unhealthy it is? It’s easy to understand how back 50 or 60 years ago, when there was little awareness of the dangers and harmful health effects, but today, pretty much everybody has at one time or another seen what a diseased smoker’s lung looks like.
On the same token, some might argue, the same applies to the people who enjoy sunbathing, and skin cancer, however there really is no comparison. Sun exposure in moderation without sunburns offers many health benefits, while there is nothing healthy about smoking, no matter how little you smoke.
Not surprisingly, if you ask most smokers, they will openly admit they know it’s bad for their health and some will even admit, they probably won’t live as long as they should, because of smoking. You’ve probably all heard the old jokes all coined by smokers about “cancer sticks” and “coffin nails.” Ask most smokers why they smoke and you usually get a lame excuse that has no rationale behind it, since there is NO rational excuse to smoke, other than simply enjoyment of the nicotine high.
I see healthy-looking young people with great looking bodies chain smoking cigarettes, and I’m thinking what a waste! If they don’t die of lung cancer in 15 years, they will end up aged 20 years in the next 10 years, or end up permanently on oxygen by age 55. I’ve seen heavy smokers younger than me who look old enough to be my father. Cigarette smoking is incredibly aging!
The life of an addicted cigarette smoker can be a royal pain-in-the-butt, even most smokers would agree. Unexpectedly running out of smokes might mean a trip to the 24-hr Wal-mart at 2am, or hunting around for the nearest convenience store to pay outrageous prices for one pack of smokes. To most addicted smokers, running out of cigarettes is far worse than running out of toilet paper.
Some smokers it seems are always looking for a light, because it seems they either keep misplacing/losing their lighter or matches, or maybe their car’s cigarette lighter finally burned out.
Plenty of smokers are nice people, please don’t get me wrong, but to many non-smokers, smokers are some of the most annoying people on Earth. Ever notice how at outdoor social venues ie: sidewalk cafe, poolside, etc.., wherever there’s a smoker, the smoke nearly ALWAYS blows or wafts over to the nearest non-smoker who hates second-hand smoke? To some, an easy explanation is smoke is attracted to a person’s rising body heat. Other’s dismiss it as Murphy’s Law. The non-smoker who does not wish to breathe the pollution, attempts to move upwind, but then the smoke nearly always changes direction.
As ex-smokers are finally liberated from the yoke of addiction, they’re discovering a new-found freedom, they could kick themselves for not discovering years earlier!
Until the 1990s before anti-smoking laws, non-smokers were often forced to breathe second-hand smoke in many establishments, even airline flights.
During the 1980s when I was in my 20s, I too like many other young non-smokers, went to smoke-filled night clubs, since that’s what everybody else was doing on Friday and Saturday nights. The Green Goose in Wuerzberg, Germany was the worse I’ve ever seen, a popular dive for US soldiers. Within minutes in that dive, my eyes were burning like hot stones. I would have to go outside every 15 minutes or so to take a break in the fresh air, it was that bad. What made it especially bad was poor ventilation. Spending one evening in a dump like that is the equivalent of smoking 2 packs of cigarettes. Even the Rock Palace was nowhere near as bad although too full of smokers, because at least there, the ventilation was good and the place had high ceilings. The time I visited a chain smoker in his home, not only were my eyes burning and stinging but even my sense of taste was effected. The glass of water I was drinking there tasted & smelled like a dirty ashtray.
At our Catholic Church in the 1970s, smoking was permitted in the parish hall, so non-smokers had to breathe smoke there too. During dance parties there, it was really bad, again the burning eye syndrome. The electric “smoke eaters” they had installed, were completely useless. Smoking has been long since banned there now. Thankfully, our highschool dances were smoke-free.
Today, I won’t set foot in any such place, nor will I spend time inside a smoker’s home. After having spent 2 hours in a smoking friend’s home, my eyes would be burning and I’d go home smelling like an ashtray. I’d have to take a shower and wash my clothes to get rid of the stink. Second-hand smoke isn’t just irritating, it’s a serious health hazard, responsible for many lung cancers of non-smokers.
If you’re a 20-something non-smoker, there’s no need to go to smoke-filled bars to socialize. There are much better alternatives. Look into healthy outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, or canoeing. Many young non-smokers fail to realize, if they are spending hours in a heavy smoking environment, they are smoking whether they like it not.
Why is it cigarette smoking is associated with some occupations? Some lines of work always seem to go hand-in-hand with cigarettes and smoking ie: door-to-door sales, tradesmen, laborers, truckers, blue collar workers. White collar occupations, and the self-employed in non-blue collar fields smoke much less. Extremely few doctors smoke, yet nurses are traditionally a group with high smoking prevalence. If you’re a non-smoker, ever notice how every time you have a plumber or other contractor to your house, they nearly always reek of nicotine, leaving behind a residual nicotine odor that sometimes takes a week to get rid of completely?
There are many different theories about this. There is a definite correlation between education level and smoking. People with High School diplomas or GEDs smoke more than people with college degrees. High School dropouts smoke the most. Cigarette smoking could simply be a long-time tradition in some occupations, just as smokeless tobacco and baseball. Other forms of tobacco are strongly associated with particular professions. Ie: businessmen and cigars, college professors and pipes.
Maybe it’s in part because BIG Tobacco has so successfully targeted the blue collar working class in their marketing campaigns for years, smoking has become a way of life for these people.
What’s your excuse? Procrastination? Peer pressure? Not yet convinced you should quit smoking? Not sincerely committed to quitting? Too much stress? You don’t believe you can overcome addiction?
Most women claim they smoke to relieve stress, while men mostly claim they smoke because they like it.
Maybe you have no desire to quit, despite knowing how bad smoking is for your health. 4 of 5 addicted smokers would love to quit but have either given up or just keep putting it off, until it’s too late. Perhaps it took the doctor who diagnosed you with heart disease or lung disease to finally convince you to kick the habit.
