Smoking Can Still Kill You Ten Years After You Quit

Yes, but it does prolong your life, i.e. you will live longer than if you didn't stop smoking. :)

Alright, I've got to express a dissenting opinion here.

Of all the pollutants in people's environments, how could anyone isolate a single source as the cause?

I only read the beginning of the attached article, but the women in question lived in Iowa. What does that mean? Pesticides. Years of poisons in the air and dumped on the soil, wind blowing up this dust and people breathing it. It is well known that people who live in farm country have a higher rate of respiratory illness.

Furthermore, did anyone notice she had installed non-natural fiber carpets (with potent glue to keep it in place) and drapes? Not natural meaning they out gas carcinogens.

You know, she also drove a new car with the windows rolled up and the heater on recirculate because when the wind blew, the dust made her cough. Little did she know she was getting ever increasing amounts of out gassing from the cars upholstery.

Keeping with her desire to have new things, at her business she also had fairly new carpets, furniture and other things which all out gassed. As well as less than ten years ago in her last home, she also had new carpets, drapes, furniture and linoleum flooring (with a potent glue to hold it to counters and the floor). And, the same reason she kept the windows closed tight on her car, she also kept the doors and windows at her business equally closed.

Now, you add to that the clothing she wore, the laundry soap, the make-up, the body lotions, air fresheners, hair spray, inhalers for when she gets that cough, finger and toe nail polish & remover, and, and... and she never had a window open at home to allow fresh air to circulate in. If she'd had a few plants, it may have helped, but the all the plants in her home were - you guessed it, out gassing plastic!

But wait, it doesn't stop there. So many people don't connect the food they eat to how well their personal "engine" runs. Because she was a "women on the go" she often ate fast food providing calories for her to burn keeping up her busy lifestyle, but no nourishment to sustain her organism for any duration of time.

What about that time 40 years earlier when she and her husband, before they were married were fooling around out in the fields and got crop dusted with one of those chemicals that have long been banned in the civilized world - the reason her husband passed away. Then, more recently when she was out to the farm and the crop duster overshot and got her and her car.

The other day she was cooking and accidentally melted that Tupperware bowl on the stove stinking up the place pretty bad. Could that be the cause and not cigarettes?

All of this wouldn't have had a terribly serious effect on her health had she not pushed herself when her body was demanding rest. When she was feeling tired, she would eat (like we all do) to stimulate her system so that she could keep going with her demanding schedule. She tried to go with fruit and veggies, but her need to keep going lead her to progressively stronger and more serious stimulants, such as all nut & fruit trail mix, then trail mix with chocolate and assorted candies, then chocolate covered pretzels and right on into candy bars. The big gulp only worked for a little while, then came ice cream by the gallons. This further weakened her immune system to the point something finally broken down.

I would agree some people can't handle the added burden cigarette smoke, first or second hand places on their system.

With so many environmental factors, how could anyone possibly single out a cigarette? Don't get me wrong, I don't advocate smoking and I don't smoke, never will and I don't have a vested interest in cigarette companies, sales or marketing, but we've been flooded with propaganda and non-critical analysis BS pandering to emotional reactions rather than real science and logical / rational methodology, kind of like how our judicial system functions.