Why do some people feel the need to blurt out that tobacco is harmful as soon as it’s mentioned. I am well aware of the research that has been done as it directly affects my own life, yet others make the
rapid assumption that all tobacco users must be ignorant. I would hazard a guess that we in fact tend to know more about it then non users. I am so tired of having health issues thrown in my face even before
the non user has had a chance to listen to what you have learned. I was sharing with a co-worker that I use snuff and the first thing I hear is how it causes cancer…all tobacco is lumped in with lung cancer. In the
eyes of most people tobacco in ANY form at any time is the fastest road to ill health. If you look at the plant too long, eye cancer! If you touch it, finger cancer, if you say the word tobacco, word cancer!!
They are so close minded and literally terrified of it. I am not ignorant of the health affects but this type of reaction seem over the top to me.
It’s an interesting question. Obviously, the public health campaign that has been waged against tobacco over the past four or five decades has been quite successful. It hasn’t helped that this campaign has coincided with a broader cultural obsession with fitness and health. The irony, of course, is that many of those who are quite quick to point out the detrimental effects of tobacco are oblivious to their own bad habits. Tobacco certainly isn’t good for you, but neither are red meat, mercury contaminated swordfish, foods with transfats, sugary drinks/foods, or the modern sedentary lifestyle. Their position also assumes that it is never rational to accept some negative health impacts in exchange for the pleasure that one can obtain from indulging. This is odd, since most would probably assent to the idea that it is acceptable to occasionally have a piece of cake, even though it is “bad” for you.
As has been pointed out here many times (and, indeed, as you note in your post) part of this comes from the fact that all tobacco is lumped together in the popular imagination. Clearly, some forms of tobacco are less harmful than others, but many people instinctively associate tobacco with cigarettes, and never seem to remember that there are other ways to consume our favorite vegetable. This is particularly problematic when, out of ignorance, non-cigarette forms of tobacco are legislatively treated the same as cigarettes (see for example the PACT Act). The obvious way to remedy this situation (advertising, public awareness campaigns) is not readily to us, due to bans on advertising tobacco products. Ultimately, we are all suffering from the overreach that the major cigarette companies engaged in for so long. It’s unfortunate, but I don’t really see any way to fix it.
But it was on television, tobacco is bad unkay, if it was on TV it must be true.
When I happen to overhear the anti-tobacco zealots squawking about all the harmful effects of our favorite vegetable, I chuckle quietly to myself, pull out my silver snuff box and take a nice large pinch. How little they know.
Boys let me tell you so,etching about tobacco. Tobacco’s bad, mmkay? Tobacco causes cancer. Let me tell you something about cancer. Cancer’s bad mmkay? The way I see it even if it shortens your lifespan why would you want to live to be one hundred if you never get to enjoy some things that aren’t healthy? You know when those people point the finger at tobacco users they have three fingers pointing back at them.
@TomStrasbourg Actually the other 3 fingers are usually wrapped around something greasy and deep fried…
All excellent points and comments here.What I don’t understand are some people’s motivation to make sure we are constantly alarmed about something we freely choose to do.Why must we be in constant anxiety about it? What allows them the assumption that we, tobacco users, are ill informed about tobacco? I’ll remind myself of this next time as I take a pinch of Irish High Toast N0.22 - Yes I use tobacco. Tell me what are some things you do that are maybe not the best for your mind, body and spirit?
It is all a scam for insurance company can reap profits; if you use tobacco in any form your in this higher tier risk group I just don’t understand everyone dies why do I have to pay more? Snuff is a vegetable and there for is at the top of my food pyramid .
Nutrition for the soul…
I agree with all the doomsayers, lets ban tobacco and while we are at it , cars , guns, tiled floors, sharp implements, diseases, sunshine, poverty, economical fragility, wild animals, air travel, water, sugar, fats, mobile phones, electricity. I propose we live in caves and eat gravel, wear grass ( if you don’t suffer with Hayfever) then we will all be safe from the dangers around us.Yea Gods wont these people leave us alone!..my rant over.I need a worry free Snuff fix now!
i think we ask the FDA and any health agency to find us proof that snuff taking is bad for us … tobacco, i.e. cigarettes, are bad mmmkay … but lumping it all in to one big cancer pot is F-ing ridiculous! Show us the proof! Scientific evidence.
I see the same dudes at the gym everyday … as I walk in with a snus in the upper lip(spit out right before i begin my workouts) … they are fat asses, and i run circles around them … yeah … tobacco rocks! :D
Diet Coke, wheat, refined sugar, sugar substitutes, etc. far worse for you than toe-bakky.
seriously when people blurt out that bullshit. I always blurt out something like did you know it’s rude to get up in other peoples business and try to tell them how to live their lives.
Usaly turns they’re face red and they almost always have the balls to say they’re just trying to help or protect you. So then I point out that I’am doing the same thing because someone will eventualy kick their ass if they keep up that bull shit.
@basement_shaman Every time I read your posts I hear it in my head like that dude in your picture from metalocalypse is saying it lol
ALL LOW.
I’m glad I’m not the only one that reads Basement Shamans posts as Nathan. Lol
@Harlequin LOL! Nathan!
THAT’S his name
I have a really hard time with my mother, because her dad died when she was 19 from lung cancer. He was a two-pack a day kind of smoker. She knows of my rare cigar smoking, but despises it. Has no idea I ‘snort my tobacco’. She’d scream nose cancer.
At least she’s happy I quit smoking cigarettes.
The girlfriend doesn’t mind the snuff, and will occasionally take a pinch. She smokes cigarettes, and wants to quit.
ALL my fiance and I do now is snuff and sometimes use e-cigarettes. I love them both and my life is MUCH more healthy thanks to them. No shame in my game.
a generous thanks to all for your comments and discussion.
@Wingcamnut “I propose we live in caves and eat gravel”, I nearly shot coffee out of my mouth, your avatar makes me laugh too!
When I’m using snuff or snus and someone blurts some sort of “tobacco is bad for your health” bs, I usually tell them to do a little research before they spew that crap at me.
If I don’t know someone and they fire the old “tobacco/smoking is bad for you” line, I usually respond with “so is opening your mouth to a guy my size.” (I am 6’7", and not a friendly looking fellow when I’m not dressed for work)
I usually just get the “is that coke you just took” comment when I am snuffing about town here in Dallas TX. Then I have say “yes I am the only man who knows where to get dark brown Coke.” I have yet to get the comment about health risks of tobacco at that point because I apparently might be a well dressed crack head.
I used to joke with folks when I did smoke, that at least it was the LAST six months of my life that I was going to miss out on! Or was it the last six years? Hey, one thing is for sure, none of us gets out of here alive. But extremely grateful, I am, about discovering the world of snuff. I keep telling folks about snuff, and the benefits versus smoking, but 90% of them just think I’ve lost my gourd.
Aww man I need to find a way to work “word cancer” into daily vernacular
“Just this morning you referred to me as a cancerous polyp on the anus of humanity.” –Chris Barrie as Arnold Rimmer
Enjoy.
Completely random but speaking of anus do you watch Community, @Dogwalla ? Your avatar looks a lot like a flag they design on the show to look like a covert rectum!!
nah it’s something diffrent then that, though they probably do have a similar genesis possibly?
I am lol’ing hard for so many reasons right now.
@bob =P
E Pluribus Anus
I use snuff and smoke a pipe. I’m often getting bleated at by onlookers about the dangers of tobacco. However, my hobby is motor racing-I’ve been racing various vehicles since I was 13, and I’m fully aware of the danger present in my life. I’m far more likely to come to harm testing and racing a 2-stroke kart which tops out at 85mph with my backside an inch from the track and no safety harness than I am enjoying a few bowls a week and the odd pinch every so often. Life’s short-if you’re not going to live it in the most exciting, enjoyable and challenging way possible, it’s a waste and a damn shame.
@Jinder “Life’s short-if you’re not going to live it in the most exciting, enjoyable and challenging way possible, it’s a waste and a damn shame.”
That’s very inspirational!
@thorgrimnr that’s certainly the code i live my life by-time is precious, let’s not waste it!
Talking of tobacco shaming, I went to my local Tesco’s earlier and all the tobacco products are shut away. WTF is the point? Or is it the usual smokersareleperspleasesomebodythinkofthechildren rubbish? Another freedom gone.
Stefan
@Walrus1985 It’s been like that now for the past few years in Canada. The government thought it best to not display ANY tobacco so that children don’t get the good idea to try it or wonder what it even is…having it available but hidden is the best way to keep children’s interest at bay. It’s very backwards in my opinion. When you go to a store here all the tobacco is shelved and hidden behind curtains or doors. You have to be an adult to request a look at what’s available.
@thor I agree very backward thinking. Surely if tobacco is hidden that’s going to make kids more curious, because it’s “forbidden”?
Stefan
But Thor you Idiot (totaly kidding by the way) don’t you see that way you don’t effect the sales and more importantly future sales but can appear to be protecting the children. What do you not get about that?
I think you do affect the sales. When this went into affect I was still a smoker and had wanted to try some different brands, but I always felt like such a tool basically asking the clerk, " What kind of cigarettes are there, can you take down one of each so I can make a choice?" So brands not top sellers are likely to fail…ooooo…I get it…Maybe the larger cigarette companies backed this? It’s still stupid though. Alcohol can be on display but not tobacco?
It has to get to the point where smokers are rioting and bootlegging packs of cigs rolled in their back yard with dried grass for filler first. Then they gotta make smoking speak easy’s…it may be a while…
In Canada, the major cigarette manufacturers DID back the legislation to hide tobacco in a cabinet. In fact, they pushed it (and may have originated it - not sure on that one). It enforces brand loyalty (just like Thorgrimnr suggests). A couple smaller cig makers actually launched a protest against the practice on just those grounds, but of course they were squashed.
There is no evidence that hiding tobacco reduces consumption or new users. I remember one dumb politico actually say something to the effect that they are protecting people from making “impulse” cig purchases. What cigarette smoker goes to the tobacco counter, sees the cigs and “suddenly” remembers that they want to buy cigs? More like drive around at 3:00 am desperately looking for an open place since they ran out…
The hideous warning photos don’t work either - even according to the prohibitionists. Hasn’t stopped them from creating new, even more graphic pictures to save-the-children. Basically, tobacco users are a minority, so they have no say and can be vilified by those who desperately want to control what OTHER people do. All over N. America they are now enacting laws to prevent people from smoking in OUTDOOR public spaces (parks, within 300 feet of schools etc.) so that no one even has to SEE an evil tobacco user. Yes, I say “evil” as it has been turned into a moral issue now. Just part of the prison planet agenda, I guess.
Hah, images on warnings…that reminds me of something I saw on another tobacco board I used to frequent. Someone posted a picture of a pack of cigarettes that was pure black with a skull and crossbones on it with “Death” under that, and asked if they were real (actually looked legit). Never got an answer but dear gods at the people who said they wanted to smoke them just because of the packaging.
@Harlequin yep death cigarettes where real …http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_(cigarette)
i also liked this design http://observersroom.designobserver.com/media/images/Build.jpg sorry couldnt get the pics to upload
Without wishing to appear excessively cynical, I think this issue is also further evidence (as if such were needed) that we now live in a post-Orwelian “1984” culture in which Big Brother is breathing down our necks. (Perhaps we should all wear tobacco-leaf necklaces in the hope of giving Big Brother cancer of some kind?)
One of the other factors that really bothers me in the UK (the high-taxation nation) is that there seems to be no regard for the tax revenue made from smokers. We hear/read all the propaganda (in addition to the scientific facts) - but has anyone ever considered balancing tax revenue from smokers en masse against the cost of medical treatment for those who end-up with smoking-related diseases? … or the indirect revenue from income tax paid by those who are employed in shops selling tobacco and smokers’ requisites? Or the fact that people are injured and killed in wars that are paid for by tax payers - wars which those same tax payers often do not agree with?
For sure, I wish I had been raised in a smoke-free house; I started active smoking at age 15 (had been a passive smoker until then). I quit when I was 36 (a bit over 12 years ago). I still enjoy tobacco in the form of good snuff - thanks, largely to two 18th Century family businesses - this harms no-one. I think the smoking issue is becoming a human rights issue on several levels.
Adult people should have the right to choose which intoxicants they consume. Bars/restaurants should be allowed to provide rooms for smokers as well as non-smokers; the staff should then have the right to choose (or refuse) to work in the smoke room without fear of losing their job if they refuse. For sure, children’s rights to clean air should be highlighted - but how do you police people smoking in their own homes?
Also - I think there is a world of difference between belligerently bleating at an adult that they are harming themselves (when they probably already know this) - and making a respectful request that they don’t blow their smoke in your direction.
Lastly, most police officers would testify that they find tobacco and marijuana far less of a problem than alcohol, when it comes to users’ behaviour…
I know it’s nothing new really. The problem in my opinion is not big brother, but how easily people are to not question or think criticaly but just respond as they’re told to. You’re second to last point is what makes the smoking bans seem so insane especialy since most don’t make exceptions for smoke shops (?). Yes cigarettes are bad for you, medicine knows that it’s primarily the cigarette part of that not the plant part of it. Though what is funny is people act like this is in a vacum, that if Mr. fakename hadn’t smoked he wouldn’t have had a heart attack despite not excercising and eating things that barely qualify as food. Which reminds me of what I do when people tobacco shame me (they are often out of shape) I talk about how being an overweight person is so bad for them and why would they do that. If the goverment gave a shit about your health primarily they’d not ban smoking but ban the known carcinogenic compound added to cigarettes which do not do anything for the consmer of cigarettes. I think it is going to turn around. Just like when the tobacco smoking didn’t become a shame untill study after study said hey this will kill you. Now the same thing is happening saying it’s good for you in some ways and if you don’t ad a ton of crap and poison to it and inhale it into the lungs it is not so bad for you either.
I still see cigarette butts all over the friggin place. I still see people throwing lit ciggs out car windows. I still hear about forest fires because of this. I don’t think cigarette smokers will ever be able to redeem themselves even if cigarettes were “healthy”.
that is because cigarettes suck.
I concur with you @thorgrimnr. My coworkers who do smoke are very interested in snuff when I bring it up and had one even take a pinch or so from me. She really liked it but I know others who ask me, “Is it safe?” My opinions are always, it may be SAFER than smoking, but what do I know? I’m not a doctor.