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True Stories Can Be Stranger Than Fiction [Extra Extra ]
Tomorrow marks the 30th year of the American Cancer Society’s day-long Smoking Cessation program, The Great American Smoke Out. The premise of the day is to get smokers to quit smoking for just one day. The hope is that with each passing hour, smokers will want to "Stay Quit," and resist the urge to light up until smoking addiction is no longer an issue.
It doesn’t take a Rocket Scientist to tell you what you already know -- Smoking can kill you one way or another (and it makes you smell like shit) .
[from to the ACS]
Lung cancer is the top cancer killer of both men and women in the US, claiming more than 160,000 lives each year. And more than 44 million US adults still smoke, putting themselves at risk of not only lung cancer, but also other types of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, emphysema, and other ailments. Smoking is responsible for 1 in 3 cancer deaths, and 1 in 5 deaths from all causes. Another 8.6 million people are living with serious illnesses caused by smoking.
Let us put it to you bluntly - if you have never watched someone you love die of cancer, we can tell you it’s not something you want to endure. Period.
And yet…new smokers are popping up every second, while hundreds of thousands of others refuse to take the steps to quit.
Do yourself and your loved ones a favor. Make the decision to quit. Even if it’s just for the day, it’s a start.
And, remember, you don't always die from tobacco. Sometimes it's uglier...
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well, shit.
I'll quit smokin' when you tear that butt from my cold, nicotine stained hand...piss off hipster.
The American Cancer Society needs to "butt" out of bar owners' businesses. They are the ones in charge of getting the smoking ban on city ballots nationwide, including Austin's ballot last year. If I opened a bar I would like to know that I would be the only authority to decide if I will allow smoking or not.
The only place where ballot initiatives should ban smoking is in government buildings (public libraries, city hall, schools) not bars, clubs, malls etc.
Besides smoking relieves stress and offsets Parkinson's disease. I am not a smoker myself, but I support smoker/bar owner's rights.
Edward's Law (corrolary to Godwin's Law):
As an online discussion Austinist comment thread grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler hipsters approaches one.
i did not read anything about the smoking ban on here Stew. take your soap box somewhere else
Arg!! Where is my html formatting?! The comment preview feature? Not so good.
I agree with Stew 100%.
Although I applaud the ACS's efforts to get people to quit smoking, they have gone over the line by trampling on private property rights. Also, they are behind the junk science that second hand smoke is dangerous. I personally will not donate money to them.
Smoking is Healthier than Fascism.
maybe those who have commented on the SMOKING BAN (which isnt even what this article is even ABOUT) should keep on smoking. the sooner y'all die off, the better for the evolution of man.
this article has nothing to do with hipsters, SMOKING BANS or FORCING laws upon anyone to make them quit smoking. its ONE DAY a year where an organization merely suggests that smokers consider quiting. big effing deal.
honestly, why dont you go tell your wife/girlfriend/mother she should NOT go get her annual mammogram b/c i dont see any of you a*sholes making comments about the recent Breast Cancer Awareness Month that just passed.
If you would more info about the Great American Smokeout, you can go to http://www.greatamericansmokeout.com. ACS offers a free quit smoking program called Quitline - you can call 877-YES-QUIT or 800-ACS-2345.
Correction - instead of 877-YES-QUIT, the number is 877-937-7848.
The American Cancer Society Quitline is available for Texas residents interested in quitting smoking or smokeless tobacco. The Texas Department of Health funds Quitline services in Texas. Information, referrals, self-help materials, and behavioral counseling are available at the caller’s convenience.
Of all our rights currently being trampled upon, why is it that the voices only seem to come out for the right to smoke? Get real and find something worthwhile to defend, a-holes. Smoking is noxious, chemically addictive and, frankly, stupid. If you want to fight 'The Man', start with big tobacco. Geez.
(Besides, fascists --Japs and Germs-- are historically pro-stimulant)
And actually, fascism is a lot healthier than smoking, especially if all the smokers are sent to an ironic end in... (you guessed it!) GAS CHAMBERS!
Smoking is for shit. Quit. I smoked 1.5+ pax a day for 16 years. It sucks. Just stop. The after school specials were right. You really do look stupid and smell bad.
As long as cigarettes are legal, it doesn't matter if smoking is dangerous, uncool, ugly.
Let people be dumb-asses and smoke cigs, that is what is great about this country. Freedom trumps science, freedom trumps health, freedom trumps popular opinion, freedom trumps assholes who think they can regulate others behavior.
I don't smoke and I wish no one else does, but that's where I stop.
Besides "Big Tobacco" is the one behind all of these Truth ads and anti-smoking legislation. They have invested interest in stricter and stronger smoking laws because it stifles competition. They are allowed to keep their monopolies and new tobacco companies are not allowed to emerge. When was the last time a new cigarette brand came out?....not in a long while. Big Tobacco wins.
Finally, all y'all bitches are complaining about how smoking is detrimental to society...what about the millions in taxes that is made off of smokers every year? Maybe it's time everyone starts appreciating those dumb-asses?
Meanwhile, encouraging people to drive their Hummers 25 miles to IKEA, thereby worsening the air quality in and around Austin, gets the thumbs up.
Hey -
If you want to remind a friend in a funny way, use our video:
RememberNovember16.com
- jd
"Meanwhile, encouraging people to drive their Hummers 25 miles to IKEA, thereby worsening the air quality in and around Austin, gets the thumbs up."
It's junk science that car pollution does anything other than make you healthier and more attractive to the opposite sex.
OMG. If all you whiney-McWhine-a-lots whined this much when they 'crimmed marijuana, I'd be lightin' up a big spliff in public right about ...now.
Maybe we can agree that only smokers and those who put themselves in smoky situations should dictate the legality of smoking. Sure. But when you invoke 'freedom' and 'rights', you speak for all us 'mericans. And many of us don't care. Some of us (well, at least me) think that it denigrates more worthwhile struggles to try to make this one seem on par.
Millions in taxes? I know we don't have universal health care. But, through other channels, the fed subsidizes a great deal of health care. I would doubt that taxes on cigs compares to how much we end up spending on Nelson Wheeze n'Cough.
These statistics are a few years old but it's something worth thinking about.
The costs of smoking are far higher than the income from cigarette sales.
Smoking causes more than $167 billion each year in health-related costs, including the cost of lost productivity due to smoking.
Smoking-related medical costs totaled more than $75 billion in 1998 and accounted for 8% of personal health care medical expenditures.
Death-related productivity losses due to smoking among workers cost the US economy more than $92 billion yearly (average for 1997-2001).
For each pack of cigarettes sold in 1999, $3.45 was spent on medical care due to smoking, plus $3.73 in lost productivity, for a total cost of $7.18 per pack.
I gather the point of the last post is to re-enforce the idea that we are merely the workers in the hive. Oh shi* smokers lower productivity, like that's important!
On the issue of healthcare cost and smoking, here is a simple solution lower the costs of healthcare.