OK there's a lot of random speculation about smoking - marketing from the tobacco industry and huge amounts of scare campaigns from health organisations. But somewhere in the middle there are some facts about smoking, so I had a hunt around to see if I could find some interesting information.
Tobacco use results in over 114,000 people a year in the UK
This is the equivalent of a plane crashing every day and killing all its passengers! According to ASH, smoking results in over 20% of the annual deaths in the UK.
Holy shit - that's a lot! ASH reckon that about 50% of regular smokers will be killed by their habit. Personally I'm still holding out for the kinky sex with hot chick death.
That's still an insane amount of deaths from smoking - if some nutter was romping around the world killing that amount of people, the Americans would have probably invaded them by now.
Smoking can cause many different types of cancer
Again, according to ASH, smoking can cause:
- cervical cancer
- cancers of the mouth, lip and throat
- cancer of the pancreas
- bladder cancer
- cancer of the kidney
- stomach cancer
- liver cancer
- leukaemia
Hey, enough talk about this crap - why don't we check out a nice juicy picture? Check this shit out! Just imagine - that is probably festering away inside you right now!
I bet if you had a little hot sauce a barbeque going, that wouldn't look so bad.
<-- time for another smoke!
And this is just the cancers! There's also the whole heart disease thing (although IMO being a lazy ass is more of a problem on that issue) and loads of other really sucky ways to die!
About nicotine
It's a drug (surprise!) that stimulates your brain, which in turn causes withdrawl symptoms when you stop smoking. Symptoms can vary from person to person, but personally I've experienced headaches and restlessness when I quit smoking before. It's kinda like a mixture of a mild hangover and insomnia.
Unfortunately, getting insanely drunk doesn't seem to help you pass through this stage of nicotine withdrawl - you end up just caving in and smoking more!
I found messing around with the PC to be useful (keeps my hands occupied - even now I still haven't lit the smoke I put in my mouth 10 mins ago - see red text, above). Mind you, I am also doing other stuff while I write this (including playing a poker tournement!). Check this page for more tips on quitting smoking.