The Medway Handyman wrote:
Kevin wrote:
typical smokers attitude, sure any smoker can find information to back
up this claim but I can find just as many to prove it is a health risk

heres one
Secondhand smoke accounts for at least 35,000 deaths in the U.S. each
year.

Lets look at the amazing, dreadful, shock horror figure shall we? Lets be
generous, for they say 'at least' 35,000 deaths per year. Lets assume 'at
least' means twice that number, 70,000.

The population of the USA is around 305,000,000. That works out at 0:0229%
of the population.

By the way, the UK Govmint has published figures - printed on cigarette
packets, so it must be true - which state that 11,000 deaths per year are
caused by passive smoking. The EU claim that 16,000 Europeans die each year
due to passive smoking, again printed on cigarette packets.

Do the maths FFS. Look at the percentage of smokers in the UK & Europe
compared to the total population.

The population of Europe is around 728 million, so thats 0:0022% of
Europeans, the UK is around 60 million, so thats 0:018%.

Wildly different figures, none of which are statistically significant.

Typical anti smokers attitude, any anti smoker can find information to back
up his claim. Trouble is the information is a complete bunch of crap and
anti smokers allow their prejudice to overcome their common sense.


It is such a shame that causes of death are horribly inaccurate. Even
if, by some miracle, the doctor writes a reasonably accurate cause, by
the time that is translated into statistics, it has been grossly corrupted.

For example, a person my partner is in contact with lost her husband
fairly recently. The immediate cause was heart failure of some sort. But
there is lots of evidence that the heart condition was a direct
consequence of thyroid disease. And who knows what caused that thyroid
disease?

Unlikely, but the certificate just might mention thyroid, however the
OPCS 'cause of death' will be heart failure.

This will contribute precisely zero to our understanding of what really
caused his death. Thyroid disease is rarely cited as a cause or even a
contributory factor.

Similar applies to smoking. There are the 'obvious' cases in which lung
cancer (for example) is held to be the direct consequence of smoking.
But there are probably far more cases in which smoking has had
consequnces which contributed to demise.

--
Rod

Hypothyroidism is a seriously debilitating condition with an insidious
onset.
Although common it frequently goes undiagnosed.
www.thyromind.info www.thyroiduk.org www.altsupportthyroid.org