The Deadly Pleasure of Smoking Cigarettes

New York Times

10 hours ago

To the Editor:
Christine Emba's homage to the allure and attractiveness of cigarette smoking ('The Embodied Pleasure of Smoking,' Opinion guest essay, Aug. 10) should itself have a warning label on it.
Tobacco use is arguably the leading preventable cause of death in the world. On average, people who begin smoking before the age of 25 and continue to smoke throughout their lives give up about 10 years of life. Ten years!
Over many decades in the United States, there has been slow but dramatic progress in reducing tobacco use, and currently only about 11.6 percent of Americans smoke. This represents an enormous public health accomplishment.
Although many factors have led to the decline in smoking, bans on smoking in public places are undoubtedly chief among them. Originally instituted as a means to protect people from secondhand smoke, these bans have had a secondary salutary effect.
When you live in a city like New York, you almost never see people smoke in a sports arena, a restaurant, a bar, a club or an office. When you do see someone smoking, it seems socially transgressive (perhaps unfortunately that's also an aspect of its resurgent, supposed coolness).
If you think that occasionally 'ripping a heater' is harmless enough as long as you don't have a pack-a-day habit, just remember that people who smoke even a single cigarette each day have measurably higher mortality than people who don't smoke at all. Please, find a better way to blow off steam.
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