• SpicyPeaSoup@kbin.social
    32·
    1 year ago

    I want people to keep smoking because too many old people put a significant strain on the economy.

    /s in case anyone needs it

    • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
      11·
      1 year ago

      Might actually be the case, some studies have suggested that smokers are much less expensive to society than nonsmokers because they die like 20 years younger

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
        7·
        1 year ago

        Well those people are idiots with no idea about the immense expense of smoking-related diseases much more than making up for any savings society might get from decreased longevity.

        It’s not about society saving money, it’s about the greed of big tobacco and the politicians they own.

            • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
              1·
              1 year ago

              I’m saying it’s not like some weird esoteric thing that we don’t see anywhere else in the medical industry. Heart disease from smoking isn’t more expensive to treat than heart disease without smoking.

              • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
                1·
                1 year ago

                Smoking is the number one cause of preventable death bar none, and it causes a shitload of nonfatal diseases and complications too, all in all making it EXTREMELY expensive for any society to deal with on a large scale.

                • LeylaaLovee@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  The dude above seems to think that Nicotine has no downsides and it’s just tobacco that causes harm. He is stupid, don’t spend long talking with him.

          • LeylaaLovee@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
            1·
            1 year ago

            I mean, kind of? Nicotine is literally a natural pesticide, it’s actually quite destructive towards everything it touches. Smoking causes dental issues, which cause far more disease than you’d expect. Also being unable to run up a flight of stairs without dying a little bit probably makes it worse.

            • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
              1·
              1 year ago

              Nicotine is literally a natural pesticide, it’s actually quite destructive towards everything it touches

              That is absolutely not true lol

              It’s not even harmful at the levels present in cigarettes.

              It’s all the OTHER stuff in cigarettes that kills you.

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        3·
        1 year ago

        If you smoke one or two cigarettes a day, it’s not too terrible.

        The probem came from people smoking a pack a day or more, and yes, it’s the kind of habit that tends to grow.

        When big tobacco made the stuff plentiful enough that people could support pack-a-day (or even case-a-day) habits, the money was just too good not to defend by surpressing science.

        As the fossil fuel revelations have shown, billionaires get desperat for money, and can’t imagine deciding they have enough or sharing substantial portions of their wealth to change the world for the better.

        • balls_expert@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          8·
          1 year ago

          https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/14/5/315

          In both sexes, smoking 1–4 cigarettes per day was associated with a significantly higher risk of dying from ischaemic heart disease and from all causes, and from lung cancer in women. .

          https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/smoking-and-cancer/how-does-smoking-cause-cancer#:~:text=and other diseases.-,Reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke a day is,never too late to stop.

          Reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke a day is a good first step. But, there is no safe level of smoking. The best thing you can do for your health is to stop smoking completely

          • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
            2·
            1 year ago

            Well there’s really no safe level of anything. Literally everything you do increases your odds of dying. It’s all about proportion. Breathing doesn’t increase your odds of dying very much.

            The conversation around nicotine is severely lacking in comparisons of scale. It’s all like “IF YOU SMOKE LITERALLY ONE CIGARETTE YOU WILL DIE OF HORRIBLE CANCER” which is a ridiculous thing to be putting out there. I get the intent, it’s because cigarettes are addictive and smoking one usually leads to smoking more, but it really makes it difficult to get a sense of how harmful cigarettes actually are at lower dosages.

            That first study you linked was a good one in this regard, but the summary still couldn’t help but tend towards “you smoke at all, you will die”. A graph would be helpful.

            Actually, I’ll just make one.

            • break1146@lemmy.blahaj.zone
              3·
              1 year ago

              I mean… Breathing doesn’t increase your chance of dying, but not doing it will guarantee it. If you smoke, there is a good chance you will die from a horrible disease. That’s the reality of it. With one cigarettes a day, smoking more will increase that chance.

              • balls_expert@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                1·
                1 year ago

                Same for alcohol, lead and absestos btw - no safe quantity has been found for all those

                Every amount has a measurable negative effect with precise enough measurements

            • balls_expert@lemmy.blahaj.zone
              2·
              1 year ago

              There’s safe levels of a lot of things

              Sugar, nutmegs, magnesium, potassium, capsicin, salt, … all of them becoming an issue if you go past your metabolism’s limits

              I think even cyanide has a safe quantity because it’s in a lot of foods, but I can’t find the source for it

          • LeylaaLovee@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
            1·
            1 year ago

            Cigs are extremely useful for chron’s and other such issues. Not healthy, but you have to understand there is a trade off for quality of life for some people. I could stop smoking, but I’m pretty sure I’d end up spending the extra 20 years I’d be alive as extra time on the toilet 🤷‍♀️