How many of you smoke?

[-BlueHole-]

I smoke,
I don't think is such a terrible thing, I know is unhealty and probably one day I will give up...tryed last year I resisted 4 months but was like the first week without it, so I started again, if one day I will give up it will be for diving

 

[jiveturkey]

I smoke but I'm quitting tomorrow...i swear.=-)

 

[SD40T-2]

I've had my eye on Thinking about it just a couple of times and all the education and what I've learned have made me just shutter at the idea. (And that was before I even thought about diving as a part of my life). For all those who mabey thinking about it...Don't! I have a hard enough time being around those that do. For those that want to quit...I have never smoked a stick in my life so I don't know what it's like to try and quit but I believe you can do anything you put your mind to. For those that have quit I give 101 congrats. Your diving will be so much better without it and you will know that your body does'nt need to work overtime underwater.

 

[cyklon_300]

If there is to be a War on Drugs, wage it against nicotine. Tobacco products are linked to 400,000 deaths per year in the US. Tobacco-related illnesses put an incredible burden on medical insurance carriers and we all have to pay for it thru higher premiums. But, amazingly, the US govt continues to subsidize the growing of this highly addictive substance.

If it remains a legal product (which it likely will), the industry has to find a different drug delivery system instead of burning the nasty crap. Ingest it, wear a patch, shoot it IV, just don't subject the rest of us to the vile stench.

Especially love the guys who flick their butts overboard on dive trips...'it's just a little cigarette...and it's a big ocean.'

Sheesh...

 

[chepar]

I used to smoke back in college when it was "cool" - way before I started diving.

I'm remarkably tight fisted with my money, and I finally decided that it was just too darn expensive of a habit. (I wonder why this trait has not lent itself to diving? )

So, when I decided to quit I finished my last pack and never bought another one again. Going cold turkey was tough, though.

 

[Tekkie]

Smoke free is the way to be.

Tekkie

 

[SwimJim]

:bonk: Boy, reading this thread makes me want to light up and I haven't had a cigarette in five years. Like many of my exsmoking compadres I enjoyed smoking. Alas is it truely bad for you. Too bad. Its gettin' so I'm running out of vices.
Just don't mess with ice cold beer and rum and cokes and I guess I'll survive.

Jim:boozer:

 

[DiverBuoy]

All that carbon monoxide (in cigarette smoke) bonding 200 times more efficiently to your hemoglobin and not letting go for as much as 1/2 a day, and then with progressively fewer "uncontaminated" red blood cells to bond with oxygen you're more likely to increase your chances of hypocapnia.

It's all a very lovely picture - like the Aetna "Red Asphalt" video shown in drivers education they should show a "Grey Ash-assault" video in divers education.

 

[scubamax]

And have less tolerance for second hand smoke than I used to. I am thankful that a lot of places (i.e.NYC) have banned smoking in restaurants. The worst thing is to spend a lot of hard earned cash on a nice meal and having the atmosphere ruined by the smoke.

And am also glad that smoking in the workplace is also pretty much a thing of the past. I remember getting bronchial problems when everyone around me lit up..I started to cough. That was back in the days when a lot more people smoked, and did so in the office.

ScubaMax

 

[cyklon_300]

are substance-addicted individuals. Unfortunately, their particular substance of abuse has health consequences for non-smokers related to inhalation exposures of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals.

Telling us to DEAL WITH IT is good advice and is precisely what we are doing. We are lobbying our elected representatives to enact legislation that will drive you out of ALL public places and to levy excessive taxes on tobacco to ensure that smokers are partially paying for the health problems they create.

If you're tired of discrimination towards smokers, I have bad news for you...your inconsiderate, polluting behavior is going to be tolerated even less in the future.

Now, DEAL WITH THAT.