Some Things to Ponder
In light of the Surgeon General's recent statement and editorials like this, I decided to go on a fact-finding mission. Here is what I found.
- Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths and 35,000-62,000 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.
- In 2004, about 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.
- The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that in 2004, 1,272,374 crimes were committed with the use of a firearm. 16,137 murders resulted from these crimes.
After examining these numbers, I'm curious: Of the following scenarios, which do you find most likely to happen to you or someone you know?
a) Dying as a result of secondhand smoke inhalation
b) Encountering a drunk driver on the road
c) Becoming the victim of a violent crime
d) None of the above
posted by Tanker311 @ 8:54 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
A friend of mine's son was shot by a drug dealer during a robbery.
Maybe I should tell him not to fret about it, because the odds were pretty much against that happening.
We try to stop drunk drivers.
It's very difficult.
We try to stop violent crimes.
It's very difficult.
We could prevent every one of the 60,000 plus deaths attributed to second-hand smoke with a simple ban on smoking in public places (including bars and restaurants).
But instead my fellow bloggers are all hell bent to protect smokers' non-existent right to poison everyone around them.
The point is...we could also stop all automobile related deaths by just putting a ban on automobiles.
Ahh...but cars are necessary and smoking is not. I'll give you that.
Next point..we could stop all drinking and driving related homicides by putting a ban on drinking...
How do you argue that one?
And for the record, I did not argue one way or the other in my post. I just raised a question.
"Second-hand smoke"--is a LOT of smoke--and mirrors.
See, a lot of people just get cancer and die; others have heart attacks and die.
The fact that they were within 10' of a burning cigarette during their entire lifetime does NOT constitute evidence that the smoke sent them down the 6' hole...
But hey! Better to blame something than just to say "X got old and died." Can't have that Death-by-Old-Age stuff.
Nope.
Well, if you're at Bradford Beach, I'd have to pick A, B, and C... actually, I'm sure D would probably occur as well.
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