Lets Go Beat Up Some Smokers

The war on smoking has been going on for over 40 years now and it is not going well despite the preponderance of the evidence is that cigarette smoking damages one's health over the long run. Yes millions of people have quit smoking and yet millions more have also started during the same time period.

The American public has been so inundated with anti-smoking information that it is no longer effective and commercials are becoming more and more outrageous. According to one of the latest commercials on Spike TV the tobacco industry supplied its products to have it featured in a Muppet movie. I thought I have seen every Muppet movie ever made and for the life of me I do not remember any Muppet movie that featured a cigarette. I must have missed that one.

The same production company produces another commercial that shows a knucklehead trying to purchase light bullets for his gun and one if his statements is something like "cigarette companies are labeling there cigarette with light and ultralights even though they are just as deadly as regular cigarette?". Lets see now, if I apply the same logic to air quality then if I lived in Linfen, China (dirtiest air in the world) or if I lived in Cape Grim, Tasmania (cleanest air in the world) I would still just as likely to develop respiratory problems because both have places have at least some air pollutions. Give me a break.

Now don't get me wrong, I do not condone smoking. If you want to smoke great. If you do not want to smoke great. But if you try to force me to do either one we will then have a big problem. So why is it that this commercial producer can get away with blatantly false statements? It is because it is socially unacceptable to be a smoker. Smokers are in the minority and it is ok to beat up smokers today.

Do you know of anyone who would publicly admit to being pro smoking? Even smokers will tell you that they know it is bad for you and they are trying to quit or have tried to quit in the past but they will not admit to being pro smoking. If a tobacco company filed a law suite against that producer can you immanage the publicity that would be generated against the tobacco company? Its just not worth the effort.

I do not have a problem with the anti smoking campaign but I do have a problem with the way society is allowing certain business and government practices to occur. Business have won law suites allowing them to not hire employees that smoke and to fire existing employees that do smoke. The bases if the law suite is that the health insurance cost would rise if they employee smokers. I have worked for a lot of companies over the last 40+ years and never once have I seen an insurance representative come into my company and taken a pole of how many smokers and nonsmokers were employed and then adjusted the companies insurance rate based on the results. The next time you update your resume, you may want to include references willing to vouch that you never touch tobacco.

I believe that all of the jurors on the employment issues of smokers were non smokers. Smokers were relieved from jury duty because they may be prejudice. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2004 44.5 million U.S. adults were smokers comprising 20.9 percent of the adult population so 2 of them should have been smokers. Sounds like stacking the deck to me.

I think that I should be allowed to fire all of my employees that are over 40 years of age. After all older employees will use more health care benefits than younger employees so this policy should keep my insurance rates to a minimum. While I'm at it anyone with a higher than 12 percent body fat is gone. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 1989 that Obese people cost 51.5 billion in health care costs per year.

Here is an interesting fact. The Department of Public Health, Netherlands reported in 1997 that smokers have more diseases that nonsmokers but nonsmokers live linger and can incur more health costs at advanced ages. For a given age smokers can cost 40 percent more in health care cost than nonsmokers and if all smokers quit today health care costs would be lower at first but after 15 years they would be higher than at present. That does it I'm going to fire everyone over 40.

Why does society allow this type of injustice happen? Because you as an individual do nothing. To paraphrase a popular saying; for injustice to occur all that is needed is for good people to do nothing. If it is ok with you that smokers are being punished for there actions then do not complain when it is your turn.