| Oct. 12th, 2008 @ 12:32 pm Random Snark |
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Current Mood:  aggravated
So you learn something new every day. I had no idea Obama was a smoker. NASTY.
And while I realize McCain too is an ex-smoker, he quit in 1980. So you know, 28 years ago. I'm pretty confident that if he were going to come down with a smoking-related cancer, or stroke, he would have by his "ripe old age".
However, Barack allegedly quit when starting the campaign for president, but he's admitted to smoking on the campaign trail.
Interesting blurb I read:
"More than half of all lung cancers are diagnosed in ex-smokers. And it's not just lung cancer. Ex-smokers face long term risks for pancreatic, esophageal, bladder, and kidney cancers, to name a few.
A 1998 study reported that the amount of fatty deposits in the carotid artery depended on total pack-years of tobacco exposure in a lifetime, not whether a patient currently smokes. A smoker's excess risk of a stroke doesn't return to that of nonsmokers until at least five, or as long as 20, years after quitting. It is possible that Obama would have to serve a hypothetical four smoke-free terms before his stroke risk returned to normal.
So how long and how much did Obama smoke? The campaign refuses to say, but we know he smoked a lot over his life. Based on accounts of his friends, we know he was smoking by the time he was a freshman at Occidental College three decades ago. He admits to having smoked up to ten cigarettes a day, but he said he usually smoked closer to four or five daily.
Most people underestimate how much they smoke, but let's take him at his word. Let's also assume he really did quit when he said he did, although he admits to having fallen off the wagon on occasion.
So he smoked for at least a quarter-century. That's more than 50,000 cigarettes — and maybe as many as 70,000.
Just because he's young, looks great and exercises doesn't mean he's completely healthy. And given what an important figure he is, to ignore his smoking history is to miss an educational opportunity."
Hmm, interesting. Also interesting that he is never going to have his body return to "non-smoker status" if he keeps "falling off the wagon" on the campaign.
I hate smoking. With a passion. I think smokers are selfish. I am biased, but my mom's smoking killed her, and deprived me of a relationship with my mom, and my children of meeting their grandma.
All for the joy of a smoke. Or a lot of smokes. Sick.
Sorry to any friends that are smokers, but it's one thing I don't have much tolerance for at ALL. If anyone has ever held their mother, withered, in pain, dying, in their arms, a week after their 21st birthday, dying b/c she smoked, then you will understand why this makes me so disgusted.
Esp someone running the country. His lack of self-control at quitting smoking doesn't say a whole lot to the picture I already have of him.
And not to say I would or would not vote for a prezzie based on smoking, but again, it just adds another layer to the man that is Barack Obama, in my eyes. |
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