[ExI] Is tobacco really harmful?

spike spike66 at att.net
Mon Nov 23 18:26:46 UTC 2009


 
...On Behalf Of Belva Plain
	Subject: Re: [ExI] Is tobacco really harmful?
	
	> 
	> Tom, I zeroeth your motion. spike
 

	Spike, I sense a certain logical inconsistency in your reply; or at
the
	very least, a lack of trust in your friend's good sense. If Rob is
right,
	the plan that I suggest will do nothing to harm him, and the
knowledge
	gained from his experiment stands to benefit mankind. If he is
wrong,
	the experiment may indeed harm him, but the knowledge gained from
his
	experiment still stands to benefit mankind. No? 
	
	Tom D
	
...

No.  Rob is a benefit to mankind, so risking losing him stands to harm
mankind.

There is plenty of data on smoking, pleeeenty.  One need not experiment with
one's own lungs to add merely one more drop in a vast sea of data.  The task
is to benefit mankind by sifting the existing data.  Insurance companies
knew how to do this back in the days where there wasn't a tenth the data; we
can too.  We have in this country, under reasonably comparable conditions,
those who smoke home-grown tobacco with no additives.  A diligent student
can get to these data and get a reasonable picture of reality to the
satisfaction of an investor, even if not to the satisfaction of a court of
law.  Failing that, one could do chemical analyses of the junk that comes
out of the consumer end of a cigarette.

Clean rooms: we have particulate counters in our satellite final assembly
facilities.  Bout 20 years ago, we accidentally discovered that there is a
factor of about 5 difference in the number of  particulates (~0.2 to 20
micron) exhaled by smokers vs nonsmokers.  We were playing around and seeing
who had the cleanest lungs: that was me.  But I was also the youngest.  We
found that there was a slight correlation with age to particulates exhaled,
but this small signal was swamped by the huge delta between smokers vs non
smokers, a factor of 5, after we  compensated for age.  I don't know what it
is that smokers were blowing, but it can't be good.

No need for tobacco in any case: just get the nicotine gum. 

Go with your intuition, use the force, young Skywalker.  We all *know*
smoking is bad news, we know it.  We can easily compare those who do with
those who don't, and just go with our intuition on that.  I would agree it
isn't the nicotine that is doing the bad, but there is plenty of other junk
in tobacco smoke.  But pulling hot smoke across those delicate lung and
throat tissues just hasta be bad pal.  Never treat your lungs as if you are
carrying a coupla spares in the trunk.

spike





	




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