As we all know, thanks to years of public service announcements, smoking is bad for you. But it turns out that smoking is even more bad for you than you thought.
We know, the idea that inhaling burning tar fumes deep into your lungs twenty or more times a day is terrible for your health seems to be counterintuitive, but the extent to which it kills you is pretty staggering, at least according to an overview of research issued by the Surgeon General. Here’s what you can enjoy according to the New York Times:
…cigarette smoking — long known to cause lung cancer and heart disease — also causes diabetes, colorectal and liver cancers, erectile dysfunction and ectopic pregnancy. The other health problems the report names are vision loss, tuberculosis, rheumatoid arthritis, impaired immune function and cleft palates in children of women who smoke.
Really, “colorectal cancer” is all you needed to say, guys. We can see the warning label now: DO YOU REALLY WANT TO PAY EIGHT BUCKS TO DIE HORRIBLY OF ASS CANCER? Include a photo of a creepy guy snapping on a rubber glove, and cigarette companies will be out of business by the end of the year.
Joking about painful death and humiliation aside, it’s worth noting that this is simply a change in government policy, not the addition of new research. So there is a possibility, however remote, that the risk of a few of these horrible ailments has been greatly exaggerated. On the other hand, that’s a bit like saying instead of being creamed by semi at highway speeds, you’ll only have a sedan smack into you, so maybe this is the year to get serious about quitting.
(Image courtesy of Chiot’s Run on Flickr.)