The Problem of Tobacco

By Milton G. Crane, M.D. and Barbara G. Crane, R.D. of Weimar Institute

Smokers have 70% higher death risk from all risks directly related to the age of starting to smoke, the number of years smoked, total number of smokes in the lifetime, and the depth of smoke inhalation. In America tobacco causes 434,000 premature deaths per year - more than alcohol, cocaine and crack, heroin and morphine, car accidents, AIDS, suicide, homicide, and fire –
COMBINED. (1989 data of U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and National Safety Council.)

Ten years after stopping smoking, death rate approaches that of non-smokers.
If you smoke 15 cigarettes a day, you lose 15 minutes of your life for each cigarette smoked, or 5.5 years lost.

Mainstream Smoke: Thousands of complex organic and inorganic compounds are in the smoke. Some are carcinogenic (cancer producing); some help carcinogens; some are toxic to the cilia cells that line the airway; some, like hydrocyanide and carbon monoxide, are very poisonous.

If You Use Tobacco, Don't Be Surprised if You…

• Develop a habit and an addiction to tobacco.
• Develop chronic bronchitis and/or sinusitis.
• Develop emphysema with wheezing and shortness of breath.
• Have decreased ability to perform exercise.
• Have impairment of mentality, especially at high altitude.
• Become hypertensive.
• Get chest pain with exercise.
• Have a heart attack and die suddenly.
• Survive the heart attack and need angioplasty or bypass surgery.
• Develop peptic stomach ulcers.
• Go blind from optic nerve damage (atrophy).
• Develop osteoporosis of the bones.
• Lose a leg or two due to Buerger's disease.
• Develop cancer of the mouth, esophagus, pancreas, or urinary bladder.
• Develop cancer of the throat or lung.
• Accidentally start a forest fire.
• Get badly burned or die in a bedroom fire.
• Set a bad example for your children.
• If you are a woman, have babies that are smaller in size and more prone to infections and who may die suddenly for no obvious reason.
• Irritate non-smokers by:
  • Your foul smell.
  • Precipitating an asthma attack in someone.
  • Increasing their risk of emphysema, cancer, and heart disease.
  • Bringing on a headache in someone.

Copyright © 1995-2002 Milton G. Crane, M.D. and Barbara G. Crane, R.D., Weimar Institute, Weimar, CA 95736. All rights Reserved.