history of cigarettes

[Ken Tone]

Cracking article on the BBC site, about the inventor of the modern cigarette, and full of 'blimey!' statistics

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20042217

 

eg

"A factory such as Hongta's in Yuxi [China] is responsible for generating 25,000 or 30,000 deaths per year from lung cancer. And about twice that number from other diseases. "

 

"Cigarette makers make about a penny in profit for every cigarette sold, which means that the value of a life to a cigarette maker is about US$10,000."

[Pugwash]

Blimey!

 

100 million deaths over the next 30 years.

 

One death per million cigarettes doesn't sound particularly bad odds - until you realise that a twenty-a-day man smoking between 16 and 65 will consume one-third of a million fags. Odds of one-in-three plus the bad health side effects.

 

I smoked for about two years in my teens, about ten a day. So I guess my odds are about 1 in 300, improved by the body's self-repair, but made worse by passive smoking. Then there's heart disease, bowel cancer, liver failure... bugger!

[Spudders]

I smoked for about two years in my teens, about ten a day. So I guess my odds are about 1 in 300, improved by the body's self-repair, but made worse by passive smoking. Then there's heart disease, bowel cancer, liver failure... bugger!

A small price to pay when offset against how cool you looked at that age though