Did you know that the smoker is twice as likely as the non-smoker to die of a heart attack? It is not surprising, therefore, that the majority of doctors in the developed countries of the world do not smoke.
Unfortunately with falling sales of cigarettes in the West (cigarette consumption has been falling by about 2% annually in the US), tobacco manufacturers are making an all-out effort to market their lethal product in countries such as ours, where the general population is not aware about the connection between early death and cigarette smoking.
Says America's Surgeon General Everett Koop about the US tobacco industry's aggressive marketing efforts in third world countries, "At a time when we are pleading with foreign governments to stop the export of cocaine, it is the height of hypocrisy for the United States to export tobacco."
One of the saddest situations a doctor sees in his practice is when someone with a young family, apparently in good health, is suddenly struck down by a fatal illness like lung cancer or a heart attack brought on by smoking.
The consequences can be disastrous for the wife and children. Parents who smoke not only set their children a bad example, it is now known that the smoke from the parents' cigarettes can cause' the children to suffer. Recurrent chest infections are a common feature in smokers' children, especially those babies under one year of age.
Remember all those old film stars - men like Humphrey Bogart sophisticatedly lighting a couple of cigarette one for me and one for my gal'? Smoking was, at the time, the smart thing to do. If you wanted to look like a film star, you were supposed to smoke like a film star. Unfortunately, many of the film stars of that era who used to smoke heavily died of smoking related diseases (including poor Humphrey Bogart, who died of lung cancer).
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