Women Who Smoke

[tasha99]

My stepdad smoked, both pipes and cigarettes. He quit in his late 50s, but died of lung cancer in his mid 70s. Someone posted that the dangers of cigarettes were known since the 1920s, but I don't think people really understood. My stepdad's yearbook from the 50s had a page of seniors smoking to calm their nerves before stressful activities, like a first date. That's where awareness was in 1950's Orange County California. I'm really glad things have changed!

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I had an aunt, that was absolutely a wonderful person. I thought the world of her and looked up to her growing up. She also smoked "like a chimney" as they say. Unfortunately, she died of a heart attack at the age of 58. I have another aunt who smoked until she had a really serious blood clot, followed by a heart attack not too long after that. Thankfully she is still around. She has since quit smoking.

I will admit, I have tried it because it seems like back in the day, "all the cool people" were doing it. I grew up in an era where people had the big ashtray in their living rooms, and there were ashtrays in cars, ashtrays everywhere... I never did it enough for it to really get a hold of me and I quit doing that before I got started good. I have seen smoking is a really bad idea and the results never seem to end well.

 

[goofyernmost]

I, of course, am not a scientist, but I don't accept every conspiracy theory that is dropped. This is all I feel about the second hand smoke situation. I am almost 76 years old. Every person in my family smoked, except my mother. It was constant exposure. Sitting around talking, riding in cars, watching TV and every other aspect in life. Now no one, including myself, in my family smokes. All the rest died of old age or some other problem unrelated to smoking. I smoked for 40 years before I quite, with great effort, and I have a few minor problems related to it, but I guarantee you it wasn't from second hand smoke, it was direct.

My observation is that I have never seen the degree of kids with asthma since the ban and social approval made it a crime to smoke. Compared to when when I grew up where I don't remember any child having those problems. So what is causing our younger generation to have breathing problems when smoking is no longer a significant part of life? The only thing I can think of is the amount of air pollution generated by our industry that expanded over time. Apparently that second hand smoke was not the culprit that we think it was. Good? No! But as harmful as it is made out to be? Also, no! More children have died from current respiratory problems, crazy people with AR15's, drunk drivers and drug addled parents then any conceivable second hand smoke ever did, yet we turn a blind eye to all of it. We are a society of idiots that believe anything we are told. And then ignore the real problems so we cannot blame ourselves for it. I don't care how many times they say it... No one has ever gotten lung cancer from walking past a smoker and smelling the smoke. It just isn't possible. People get lung cancer even if they were never near a cigarette.

 

[Suger Mag]

I, of course, am not a scientist, but I don't accept every conspiracy theory that is dropped. This is all I feel about the second hand smoke situation. I am almost 76 years old. Every person in my family smoked, except my mother. It was constant exposure. Sitting around talking, riding in cars, watching TV and every other aspect in life. Now no one, including myself, in my family smokes. All the rest died of old age or some other problem unrelated to smoking. I smoked for 40 years before I quite, with great effort, and I have a few minor problems related to it, but I guarantee you it wasn't from second hand smoke, it was direct.

My observation is that I have never seen the degree of kids with asthma since the ban and social approval made it a crime to smoke. Compared to when when I grew up where I don't remember any child having those problems. So what is causing our younger generation to have breathing problems when smoking is no longer a significant part of life? The only thing I can think of is the amount of air pollution generated by our industry that expanded over time. Apparently that second hand smoke was not the culprit that we think it was. Good? No! But as harmful as it is made out to be? Also, no! More children have died from current respiratory problems, crazy people with AR15's, drunk drivers and drug addled parents then any conceivable second hand smoke ever did, yet we turn a blind eye to all of it. We are a society of idiots that believe anything we are told. And then ignore the real problems so we cannot blame ourselves for it. I don't care how many times they say it... No one has ever gotten lung cancer from walking past a smoker and smelling the smoke. It just isn't possible. People get lung cancer even if they were never near a cigarette.

Cancer is often a combination of multiple factors: exposure... lifestyle... genetics... and I dare say sheer luck


Not everyone who is exposed to a potential carcinogen will have health consequences. Some folks are lucky and have robust genetics that do not make them predisposed to developing a certain cancer. So even with heavy exposure they do fine. Some folks have mutations in key genes that make them more likely to develop cancer.. so with even a whiff of exposure (or none at all) they have problems. And I think there is always the element of sheer luck.

We live complicated lives... we go about our day to day putting all sorts of stuff in us and on us. Our days are filled with all sorts of exposure , most of which we do not even realize are dangerous.

Some day in the future our descendants will look at what we routinely do now with horror and be like wow SMH.... just like how we react when we look back and say *** were they thinking... for example some of the common things to paint on your face at one time was lead and arsenic...

I am a former smoker, and was a child of a smoker... so hoping for some good luck and genetics on my end...

 

[RedAngie]

I remember some people having stand ashtrays next to the sofa, like these.







And of course one needed an elaborate lighter to sit on the coffee or end table.

 

[goofyernmost]

I remember some people having stand ashtrays next to the sofa, like these.

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And of course one needed an elaborate lighter to sit on the coffee or end table.

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In the 50's and early 80's just about everyone household was set up like that. Ashtray in the kitchen, livingroom, bedrooms and even the bathroom. That's just the way it was. People tried to discourage their children from smoking but it was like talking to a wall. They didn't see the health risk even to themselves much less the second hand smoke that everyone is having an exploding brain about.

Believe me, I learned to recognize the dangers of smoking but by that time I was already hooked and until I started coughing a lot, I never considered quitting. Fortunately, my Daughters never smoked and now there is no one in my immediate family that smokes. People back then didn't want their kids to smoke because if they weren't understanding the dangers, they did realize how stupid a kid looks smoking and that was still anti-social. When we were young, we saw it everywhere. Every movie had the hero that smoked, all the Beatles smoked so it must have been cool to do so.

During our youth there was a similar type of stress that is being felt now. It was the cold war days where we were constantly reminded that we where only one of two wrong words away from total annihilation. There was no reason to stop smoking as today may be our last anyway. Today we have a world again in shambles except we, ourselves, are players were before we were just trying to stop the threat, we now are our own threat. That's even harder to cope with.

 

[longboard55]

My mom who is 96 has a childhood friend still alive as well. She says they were the only 2 in the group than never smoked. The rest have been dead for 20-30 years

 

[MrsPete]

"Like" isn't exactly the right concept. Nicotine is one of the most powerful dopamine stimulants known to man - it's more physically addictive than heroin. And smokers use the powerful hit of comfort as a coping mechanism for practically every negative emotion, as well as a reinforcement for positive ones, which makes it psychologically addictive as well.

I "get" that people become addicted ... but the question in my mind is, WHY does anyone pick up the first cigarette? When it's not yet an addiction, WHY pick up something that you know is dangerous and expensive? Personally, I've never seen smoking as even remotely "cool".

My observation is that I have never seen the degree of kids with asthma since the ban and social approval made it a crime to smoke. Compared to when when I grew up where I don't remember any child having those problems. So what is causing our younger generation to have breathing problems when smoking is no longer a significant part of life?

First, I did know kids who had asthma when I was a child (I was born late 60s).

Second -- and this will be cold -- consider that starting around the early 70s medical technology for newborns took a big step forward. Babies lived who would've died only a decade before; many of them have remained a bit more fragile all their lives. Of course anecdote isn't synonomous with data, but one of my younger siblings was very early in the early 70s -- he was not expected to live, but he did. All his life, he has been quicker to become ill than the rest of us.

Third, the typical American's diet has gone downhill since I was a kid. More soda, more fast food, more junk food. That does make a difference in one's overall health -- even at a young age.

No one has ever gotten lung cancer from walking past a smoker and smelling the smoke. It just isn't possible. People get lung cancer even if they were never near a cigarette.

I don't think anyone's claiming that.

I remember some people having stand ashtrays next to the sofa, like these.

View attachment 864390

View attachment 864391

View attachment 864392

And of course one needed an elaborate lighter to sit on the coffee or end table.

View attachment 864393
View attachment 864394

Oh, wow, I'd forgotten those freestanding cigarette stands -- you just brought back a childhood memory.