Smokers: Unhealthy lifestyle or far greater problem?

[WriterDom]

quote:
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Originally posted by Ally C
I smoke too, but smoking has nothing to do with 'pollution' on a massive industrial / global scale. You're mixing up an unhealthy lifestyle option with a far greater problem for us all.


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5.608 trillion cigarettes a year don't add to global warming?
unhealthy lifestyle option?

The filters on one pack of 20 cigarettes weigh 0.12 ounces (with no tobacco attached) and displaces a volume of 10 ml. With annual world-wide production of cigarettes at 5.608 trillion, the potential weight and volume of cigarette butts becomes enormous (Table 1).

Similarly, cigarette butts take up a large volume of space. If one person smokes a pack and a half a day, he will consume more than 10,000 cigarettes in a year. This number of cigarette butts (filters only --not including remnant tobacco) will fill a volume of five liters. Worldwide annual consumption of cigarettes creates enough cigarette butt waste to fill more than 2,800,000,000 liters (2,800,000 m3).

Cigarette butts are the most common type of litter on earth. Collected, they weigh in the millions of pounds. The toxic chemicals absorbed by cigarettes' cellulose acetate filters and found in butts' remnant tobacco, are quickly leached from the butts by water.

http://www.cigarettelitter.org/index.asp?PageName=UN

 

[WriterDom]

The smoke from cigarettes also contains greenhouse gases. Cigarette smoke contains carbon dioxide and methane. Smoking worldwide releases about 2.6 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide in the air every year. It also releases about 5.2 billion kilograms of methane every year. Tobacco growing, curing, and smoking all add to the greenhouse effect and global warming.

http://scienceu.fsu.edu/fl/content/tobaccoyou/enviroment/docs/globalwarming.html

 

[p_p_man]

Now give us the same...

...figures using the same category examples and written in the same style (in other words like for llike) for motor vehicles...

 

[WriterDom]

Re: Now give us the same...

...figures using the same category examples and written in the same style (in other words like for llike) for motor vehicles...

If our country was small than Oregon like yours then perhaps we could drive less. But no one HAS to smoke.

 

[SleepingWarrior]

Re: Re: Now give us the same...

If our country was small than Oregon like yours then perhaps we could drive less. But no one HAS to smoke.

or own guns, have opinions, speak freely, live here or eat animals.My point? Smoking is a right just like everything else that is LEGAL.

 

[Tabby432]

Smokers: Unhealthy lifestyle or far greater problem?


Unhealthy lifestyle.

 

[WriterDom]

Re: Re: Re: Now give us the same...

or own guns, have opinions, speak freely, live here or eat animals.My point? Smoking is a right just like everything else that is LEGAL.

You have a LEGAL right to harm the planet with your addiction. Not to mention the nasty things smoking does to your penis over 25 years or so. Might give new meaning to your screen name Sleeping Warrior.

 

[p_p_man]

Re: Re: Now give us the same...

If our country was small than Oregon like yours then perhaps we could drive less. But no one HAS to smoke.

Maybe not but in the interest of a balanced argument I would like to see those figures as relating to motor vehicles.

 

[Tabby432]

Re: Re: Re: Now give us the same...

Maybe not but in the interest of a balanced argument I would like to see those figures as relating to motor vehicles.

Or cows or any other mundane thing.

 

[p_p_man]

or power stations...

...or oil rigs or factories or aeroplanes or space shots or...

All I'm asking for is motor vehicles.

 

[WriterDom]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Now give us the same...

Or cows or any other mundane thing.

For now we need internal combustible engines. I guess we could do a cost/ benefit analysis to see how many people would starve if we eliminated cows from the planet, and what that would do to the price of other foods. But we could all stop smoking today, right?

 

[CW]

Re: Re: Re: Now give us the same...

Maybe not but in the interest of a balanced argument I would like to see those figures as relating to motor vehicles.

If you think that motor vehicles is too extreme,,, then perhaps these choices that lead to pollution in one form or another are more narrowly defining,,,

how about charcoal grills?

how about batteries?

how about plastic wrappers and bags?

how about fertilizer run off from your yard or garden?

how about freon from air conditioners?


No one is holding a gun to your ( figurative you ) head forcing you to use these products either.

 

[Tabby432]

"or any other mundane thing"

Take your pick.

 

[CW]

"or any other mundane thing"

Take your pick.

EXACTLY!


Forget the autos, space shots, mega sized industrial pollution sources,,,

go with the small stuff that some folks do, and some don't.



Smoking in any form is a horrible habit,,, and one day it will kill me deader than hell,,, if the random auto accident doesn't do me in first. Or if I don't contract cancer, other than smoking related. Or have a brain tumor that wipes me out.

 

[WriterDom]

EXACTLY!


Forget the autos, space shots, mega sized industrial pollution sources,,,

go with the small stuff that some folks do, and some don't.



Smoking in any form is a horrible habit,,, and one day it will kill me deader than hell,,, if the random auto accident doesn't do me in first. Or if I don't contract cancer, other than smoking related. Or have a brain tumor that wipes me out.

Chewing on toothpicks is a habit. Smoking is getting your "fix"

 

[CW]

Chewing on toothpicks is a habit. Smoking is getting your "fix"

yeppers it sure is,,, in fact I think I'll get another fix right now.






* lighting up and blowing smoke in the air* ahhhhh,,,

 

[BlondGirl]

Just FYI

If you look at a table of exposures of radioactivity in the common populations, you will find smoking in the top 10 ways of exposure. Smoking ciggarettes exposes the smoker to radioactive polonium. (Did I spell this right? Been a while since I took radiation safety classes....)

Working in health care, it is amazing to see these guys that come in at 35 and already have the signs of early emphysema--their chests are often already beginning to round out (barrell chest) and their lungs appear to be fighting the self destruction.
Or you see someone who has had surgury that just...won't...heal...up. The home health provider will go over and see the ashtrays overloaded. It is not unheard of for these patients get bumped or avoided for noncompliance. Who wants to waste their time trying to help a person fix their problems if the person will simply undo all one's efforts. (Yes, it has been proven in study after study that ceasing smoking for a week before any trauma and staying off for a few weeks after this trauma vastly improves healing.)
Time to quit ranting--time for work. I wonder if someone involved in a lung cancer lawsuit will come in today stinking of cigs. It amazes me to hear these guys bitch about how their company MUST pay for the damage to their bodies when their fingers and teeth are stained and they have emphesema in addition to the lung cancer. Smoking heavily for 45 years versus working 10 years at a plant that manufactures asbestos..hhhmmmm......
A lot of these guys are really nice. But I can't feel sorry for them any more than if they kicked the door and broke their toes. It is their own stupidity.

 

[p_p_man]

That's all very well BlondGirl...

...I think we all agree that smoking doesn't do us any good at all. But I do get fed up with this one sided argument that keeps getting trotted out where statistics are thrown around like confetti without any credence given to other forms of pollution.

WriterDom is talking about smoking as a global threat. All I want are figures giving other sources of pollution so that I can compare just how far up the league table smoking is as a major contribution to global warming.

Comments like those I've copied below are not likely to persuade me or any one else unless we have more facts to go on:

a) how many billion/trillion kilograms of carbon dioxide are there in the air
b) how many billion/trillion kilograms of methane are there in the air
c) what percentage does the emission of carbon dioxide and methane from cigarettes represent against the total air borne figure
d) what percentage does the emission of carbon dioxide and methane from other sources represent against the total air borne figure.

following is copied here from WriterDom's post
The smoke from cigarettes also contains greenhouse gases. Cigarette smoke contains carbon dioxide and methane. Smoking worldwide releases about 2.6 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide in the air every year. It also releases about 5.2 billion kilograms of methane every year. Tobacco growing, curing, and smoking all add to the greenhouse effect and global warming.

See my point?

 

[unusuallyconfused]

Up until the last couple of days, it has been an extremely "cold" summer. No greenhouse effects here, so far! I don't think anyone will quit smoking that can't quit smoking. I am a recent ex-smoker of 9 months, and I will tell you that while I needed my fix, It would not matter what anyone would of said about the "greenhouse" effect. Hell, if a smoker dosn't care about the cancer, what makes us think they will care about the greenhouse effect.

 

[WriterDom]

Up until the last couple of days, it has been an extremely "cold" summer. No greenhouse effects here, so far! I don't think anyone will quit smoking that can't quit smoking. I am a recent ex-smoker of 9 months, and I will tell you that while I needed my fix, It would not matter what anyone would of said about the "greenhouse" effect. Hell, if a smoker dosn't care about the cancer, what makes us think they will care about the greenhouse effect.

Our liberals here care deeply about the greenhouse effect. But not enough to stop smoking.

 

[Purple Haze]

WriterDom, the Clinton Administration that you still want to whine about even today did more to try to run the tobacco industry out of business than McCarthy did to expose the commies. Cigarette smokers have been reduced to second class citizens everywhere, and where I live, a pack of butts is over four dollars a pack, thanks to our government in the nineties. You aren't actually a liberal, are you?

 

[p_p_man]

...in the absence of any reply...

Our liberals here care deeply about the greenhouse effect. But not enough to stop smoking.

to my request I can only assume you can't answer it.

Therefore your whole argument (or should I say the argument you chose to copy from somewhere else) is invalid.

It might be a good idea WriterDom if you want to carry some weight in your observations is to inform us of all the facts before coming out with blanket, and quite frankly idiotic statements, just for the sake of making a noise...

 

[Ally C]

*I'll make an assumption: *

This thread was born out of the one my quote was taken from. This appears to be to counter points made there by diverting attention away from the issues therein to that of smoking. [But why?]

*End of assumption.*


Anyway, who was being described as "Our liberals"? You seem quick to categorize people and assign guilt without any justification. Is smoking good for my health? No. Is it all those fascinating facts you dug up? Most probably. Is it an unhealthy lifestyle option? Of course. Am I going to stop? No. Do I care about the environment? Yes; and I recycle, don't drive a car, use energy efficient products [to give a few examples]. If you were to form a comparison between my actions (and non actions) and that of an industry which causes pollution [and collate and transfer meaning between what 'we' do that is harmful] then I'm sure that my present lifestyle would equate to a very healthy workplace. The 'worst' there would be is an area set aside for workers who wanted to smoke. But the facts have spoken: all of those waste products and all of that smoke adds up and has some impact. Well, when government bans smoking I'll quit. I promise. In the meantime I'll keep on smoking in a free world [!]. I'll leave avoidance of action (and words) over things which 'you' have it in your power to change out of this. You'll no doubt have a much clearer and smoke-free view of how environmentally friendly your own little world is. Enjoy it while it lasts.




Apologies for missing the inception of this thread. Over and out.

 

[SleepingWarrior]

All I have to say is I'll continue smoking until the day I die, get bored with it or it costs too much. My 'impact' on the enviroment is secondary to what I have the right to do. If it isnt one thing someone is attacking its another, I'll sit through the arguements presented but in the end it wont matter to me, because I will do what I do.

 

[WriterDom]

Re: ...in the absence of any reply...

to my request I can only assume you can't answer it.

Therefore your whole argument (or should I say the argument you chose to copy from somewhere else) is invalid.

It might be a good idea WriterDom if you want to carry some weight in your observations is to inform us of all the facts before coming out with blanket, and quite frankly idiotic statements, just for the sake of making a noise...

Smoking worldwide releases about 2.6 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide in the air every year. It also releases about 5.2 billion kilograms of methane every year.

That's an idiotic statement? If you are interesting in other sources of carbon dioxide or methane than I assume you know how to use a search engine and can investigate that on your own.