An excerpt from the article:
Smoking
While the morbidity rates for cigarettes and cancer grab most of the headlines, Dr. Kava says they only scratch the surface of the toll tobacco takes on the populace.
"The area of concern that I think is not played up enough are the chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases like emphysema," she says. "That's sort of hideous, people don't really have enough breath to do much of anything. As a society, we seem to pay a lot more attention to cancer, but in terms of debilitating diseases, emphysema ranks way up there."
The problem isn't the nicotine, she says, although it is addictive and can increase the heart rate and slightly elevate blood pressure; the bigger threats are in the tars and toxins, including carbon monoxide, that get inhaled and absorbed into the bloodstream.
"I would rather see somebody with a lifelong addiction to nicotine use something like the patch or lozenges or nasal sprays with nicotine for the rest of their lives if they can just quit smoking," she says. "That's a much better tradeoff for reducing the risk of these very serious diseases. Just about anything is better than smoking tobacco."
OK, Mr. or Ms. Pack-a-day, here's your money going up in smoke:
Bankrate average price of a pack of cigarettes: $5
Daily pack: $5
Weekly: $35
Monthly: $150
Annually: $1,825
That puts that annual community college tuition just $251 away. Put that into a tax-free 529 college savings plan earning 7 percent for your newborn and by the time he turns 18, you'll have stashed away $62,048 before taxes for college.
:scared :com:
