Chapter 7 - Why Do People Persist in Species-Suicidal Beliefs and Practices and What’s to Be Done?

Summary

Two-thirds of smokers will die early from smoking-related illness. Tobacco smoke has been linked to at least thirteen different types of cancers. Smoking a half-pack a day doubles one’s risk of death and smoking a pack a day quadruples it. Two-thirds of smokers will die of smoking-related causes. A close relative of mine, anytime she sees someone smoking, does not hesitate to point out how stupid they are. Really, how could anyone be stupid enough to engage in behavior that is more likely than not to kill them, probably in what will prove to be a slow and painful death? Although fewer and fewer people smoke, at least in the United States, one in five deaths is smoking-related.