Daddies and babies

I love seeing the daddies and grandpas pushing the baby strollers in the dawn's early light at Lakeside. Someone drew the short straw when the little one woke up. But yesterday about 7 a.m. as I nodded and spoke to the 30-something dad, I could smell the cigarette smoke on his clothing (he wasn't smoking--we're a smoke free community, even on the streets). I could still smell it a block away as I walked where they had just been. Think about the house and car! And the baby's lungs! And think about how that sweet baby learns to associate the smell of cigarettes with hugs, cuddles and daddy.

Joan and her sister Carol, blogging and Facebook friends,  were both school teachers before retirement, and have said, “When I taught school, I could tell which children had parents who smoke because the smell of smoke permeated the children’s clothes.”

So I decided to look it up—if I were concerned, surely someone has researched it.   And yes.  “ Children’s Hedonic Judgments of Cigarette Smoke Odor: Effects of Parental Smoking and Maternal Mood” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1783765/

“We hypothesized that children of smokers would like the cigarette odor and prefer it relative to a neutral odor more than children of nonsmokers. Moreover, we hypothesized that children’s preference for cigarette odor would be attenuated if their mothers experienced cigarettes in a negative emotional context. . . . The current findings suggest that early learning about the sensory aspects of smoking is anchored to children’s experiences at home and the emotional context in which their mothers smoke. However, it is not clear how variation in the timing and amount of exposure to cigarette smoke during childhood affects the formation and persistence of such olfactory associations. If these odor associations persist throughout childhood into adolescence, our data may suggest that children who experience cigarette smoke in the context of a relaxed mother may have more positive associations with smoking, whereas those who experience the odor with a mother who smokes to reduce tension may have more negative associations. Whether such associations (either positive or negative) affect children’s risk for smoking initiation is not known. The long-term effects of early hedonic judgments about cigarette odor are important areas for future research.”

Bad news for smokers—it’s worse than you thought

The study of more than 200,000 people, published this week in BMC medicine, found about 67 percent of smokers perished from smoking-related illness. That rate is higher than doctors previously estimated.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/26/the-terrifying-rate-at-which-smokers-die-from-smoking/

Besides lung cancer, smoking also increases the risk of at least 13 other cancers including cancers of the larynx (voice box), oesophagus (gullet), mouth and pharynx (throat), bladder, pancreas,  kidney,  liver,  stomach,  bowel,  cervix, ovary, nose and sinus, and some types of leukaemia. There is also some evidence that smoking could increase the risk of breast cancer.

Quitting smoking unassisted

It’s nice when medical opinion catches up with mine.  For years I have questioned the use of public funding for smoking cessation—for Medicaid and Medicare patients, for prisoners and various minority populations and those  in the bottom quintile. It seemed a sop to the pharmaceutical companies, social workers and various cessation gurus.  With no great research on my part I noticed that although I know many former smokers—perhaps a hundred or so—not one of them quit using a drug or group support or counseling method.  The two closest were my father, who quit at 39 when he began spitting up blood from his coughing and lived to 89, and my father-in-law who quit when he reached for his third pack of the day and lived to be 93. Both quit cold turkey. Two of my father’s brothers, Russell and John, and one of his sisters, Gladys, did not quit, developed cancer and died painful deaths.  My father-in-law’s wife, Rosie, died many years before her husband; she didn’t stop smoking and developed lung cancer. I couldn’t begin to count the people my age that I know who are former smokers, including brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. I know one man who used God—he says he challenged God, if he were real, to take away his desire to smoke. Poof, it was gone, and he stopped. He became a believer—in God. I know a few who became desperately ill, heart disease, COPD, stroke or cancer, and then stopped—and you can call it fear, but it was sheer will power. Their lives, although extended, were shorted by the years of foolishness and addiction.

A 2013 Gallup Poll of former smokers showed only 8% attributed their success to nicotine replacement therapy—gum, NRT patches—or prescription drugs.  56% credited “cold turkey,” “will power,” or “mind over matter.”  In other words, they decided to kick the filthy, health killing habit.  As a non-smoker, I am thrilled I can go into a restaurant or public event, and not leave smelling like a gambling casino of the 1950s.  However, there was a dramatic drop in smoking among Americans after the 1950  report linking tobacco and cancer, from 7.7 million former smokers in 1955 to  19.2 million in 1964, to 36.2 million in 1979. This was before the anti-smoking campaigns, the laws, and the drugs. Researchers could clearly see and puzzle over the success rate of these people, but chose to go the “assisted” route to find the perfect drug or program.

In my opinion, except for those unfortunate enough to have been mainlined nicotine in the womb, the vast majority of smokers pick up the habit through choice and social influence.  And that’s the way to quit.  Just do it, and don’t hang around with smokers.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=1812969

Democrats voted for higher taxes on the poor by reelecting Obama

Everyone by 2015 will be paying more taxes under the President's plan--except of course, those who don't pay any taxes. Although even the poor get to pay more taxes for their cigarettes--the poor and less educated do not respond to price pressure so most will continue to smoke anyway.  Cigarette excise taxes are regressive--lower income smokers spend a disproportionate share of their income on cigarette taxes compared to smokers with greater incomes . In NY from 2003–2004 to 2010–2011, the percentage of income spent on cigarettes for smokers with annual incomes less than $30,000 more than doubled (11.6% to 23.6%). These taxes really hurt the poor--and the first tax Obama passed in 2009 was $1 on cigarettes.  He's not the first president to lie about taxes, but we've got more gullible voters these days. And they ARE educated.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0043838

Patch, pill or hypnosis, how did you quit?

I'm still waiting to meet a former smoker who quit permanently as the result of a government paid for program in their health plan, a work sponsored program, a drug patch or pill, hypnosis, talk therapy, etc. And I don't mean the 3-6 month quitter that the research reports in a clinical study so they get another grant from the NIH.  I'm sure they are out there, or why would we be spending so much money on them? [sarcasm].

Just Google "Smoking Cessation programs" (about 4.5 million hits).  Mayo Clinic claims it's had 45,000 participants in its program to stop using tobacco (smoking and chewing), with 110 randomized clinical trials involving more than 25,000 research subjects.  Where are the success stories?

When I see reports on what percentage of income the poor spend on cigarettes, there is usually a follow up appeal on why we should be spending more money on helping them quit.  Put where is the research that pills, patches, hypnosis and counseling actually pay?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/nyregion/poor-smokers-in-new-york-state-spend-25-of-income-on-cigarettes-study-says.html?_r=0

What you can do to make sure your kids don't smoke

This is the heading of a 2 page ad in a women's magazine--sponsored by Lorillard Tobacco Company! Hmmm. Not sure that's the best source. Anyway, this tobacco company which is dedicated to getting your kids hooked into a life time habit that costs about $4,000 a year, says these things will keep them from smoking: 1) Reinforce the immediate consequences, 2) instill strong values and beliefs. Ha, ha, ha. That's rich.

What 13 year old have you met who could weigh the risks of bladder and lung cancer against being included with the kids he admires? Peers win every time.

I'm guessing this advertisement is included as part of a law suit.

Twelve other reasons to stop smoking

Besides the obvious one, death. The list is in the November 14, 2008 US News and World Report. I came across it today looking for the success rate of cessation programs, either medication and/or counseling. I wanted to know this because of the billions the government spends on that through Medicare and Medicaid, and the only former smokers I know who kicked the habit for good, did it without either. Like my Dad, who quit at about 39 when he started coughing up blood (died at 88), and my father-in-law (died at 92) who quit cold turkey around 50 when he reached for that 3rd pack of the day the first time.

So here are 12 other reasons. Link.

1. It fogs the mind. . . smoking in middle age is linked to memory problems and to a slide in reasoning abilities . . elderly smokers face a heightened risk of dementia and cognitive decline, compared with lifelong nonsmokers.

2. It may bring on diabetes. . . current smokers have a 44 percent greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes than nonsmokers do, and the risk was strongest for those with the heaviest habit, who clocked 20 or more cigarettes per day.

3. It invites infections. . . there are very strong data showing that the risk of infection by pneumonia-causing bacteria is substantially greater for smokers than for nonsmokers. . . research suggests that smoking may interfere with immunity, compromising people's ability to fight infections. . . children exposed to secondhand smoke at home during early infancy (especially those born prematurely or with a low birth weight) are more prone to a throng of severe illnesses.

4. It may stultify a sex life. . . Smokers are more apt to experience erectile dysfunction than nonsmokers are, and this risk climbs as the number of cigarettes smoked increases.

5. It may lead to wrinkles...everywhere. . . including the inner arm and perhaps the buttocks.

6. It may hasten menopause. . . chemicals in cigarette smoke can hurry menopause by killing off egg cells made by ovaries, thereby dwindling the egg cell reserve.

7. It may dull vision. Several studies have found a robust link between smoking and eye disease . . . active smokers may face two to three times the risk for developing the disease experienced by those who have never smoked.

8. It hurts bones. Smoking weakens the body's scaffolding and is a serious risk factor for osteoporosis . . . Smokers may also experience slower healing of broken bones and wounded tissues than do nonsmokers.

9. It may injure the insides. . . heartburn, peptic ulcers, and possibly gallstones, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. . . elevated risk of developing Crohn's disease.

10. It may stifle sleep. . . smokers are four times more likely to get nonrestorative sleep than those who don't smoke, and researchers deemed nicotine the likely culprit.

11. It shaves years—and quality— off life. Men who have never smoked live on average 10 years longer than their peers who smoke heavily.

12. Tobacco use and smoking have been linked to much more than lung cancer. . . Lung and bronchial cancer topped the list, naturally, but other types included stomach, pancreatic, kidney, urinary bladder, and cervical cancer.

If you loved your wife

While I was volunteering at the Midwest Birding Symposium and learning from Jim McCormac about how a drop of water in Lake Superior makes it to the Atlantic Ocean, my husband was the assistant rector at a Cum Cristo (Cursillo) week-end. He's been on so many Cursillo, Cum Cristo, Renewal, and Emmaus Walk week-ends, I've lost count. Maybe I'm crazy but I think he usually says, "This one was the best." But he did tell me about one guy we've known about 35 years who used to be a member of our church. His wife died of cancer some years ago and he has remarried, and I think things are fine, although we were never close, so I really don't know.

Anyway, he was periodically stepping outside for a smoke. Before they all went home, my husband said to him, "You don't love your wife." Obviously shocked, the man asked what he meant. "If you loved your wife, you wouldn't want her to be left alone and grieving after you die of cancer. You've been through this--how can you want this for her?" Then he sympathized and told him about my dad--who quit smoking when he was 39 and said it was 20 years before he stopped wanting a cigarette (he lived to be 89). He says the guy said he'd think about it.

That's pretty bold for a guy as quiet as my husband, but then he told me he'd done that before, and the guy actually did quit cold turkey.

Cursillo isn't about saving anyone for Jesus, because usually they are already Christians; but it couldn't hurt to save a physical life too, and save a wife and children from grieving an early loss.

My Dad was a smoker--from the archives

Oh, I remember that cough. We children had never known anything else but Dad's coughing. And the blue haze everywhere in the house if he was home. In those days, I didn't find the smell unpleasant like I do now. It was always a mix of after shave, hair cream, cigarettes and fuel oil. But what must my mother have thought? Neither of her parents smoked. Her mother was a health-nut--wouldn't even eat red meat, and she was always airing out the house.

Dad told me 40 years later [after he'd quit] that he wanted a cigarette for 20 years. When I was younger, I didn't think about that too much. But now I'm in awe of his focus, drive and determination. He was not always a pleasant person to be around when I was growing up. I wonder now if he just wanted a cigarette, if his head hurt, his eyes burned and his skin crawled for nicotine. My parents weren't social--Dad dealt with people all day, 12 hours a day and a houseful of noisy children at night. And all the while, craving a cigarette, knowing that would take the edge off.

Heeding the warnings

Driving to the bank this morning after my walk, I pushed the radio buttons and got that monotonous recorded weather channel. Storm warnings. Flooding. But the sun is shining and it's a delightful spring day. Snow. Sleet. Ice. Flooding. Starting tonight. It's already in Indiana. Make appropriate preparations now for those of you in [three] Ohio counties.

I glanced in my rear view mirror and the woman driving the small red Ford truck was puffing away on her cigarette like a hungry baby at the breast. I'd just cleaned my back window on the van and I could see her pasty, pale skin, wrinkles and slack skinned face--puff, puff. Her male passenger looked worse--he was obese, with jowls hanging over his coat collar, and even more pale. In Ohio, we know what pale in March means--it's been a long, dark winter. But these folks were sickly pale, not Ohio-winter-pale. Cigarette, oxygen deprived pale. She's read the warnings; she's heard the warnings; at least one loved one, and maybe 20, have told her to quit. She's looked in the mirror and it's told her to quit. She knows the only cigarette that works is the first one--the rest are just habit.

Heeding warnings. Flooding or smoking. Who listens? "It will never happen to me" plays much louder.

4645

Cite your sources!

There's a full page ad in the paper today from the State of New York Commissioner of Health addressed to Disney, GE, News Corp., Sony, Time Warner and Viacom.

"The science is clear: exposure to smoking in movies is the single most powerful pro-tobacco influence on children today, accounting for the recruitment of half of all new adolescent smokers."

No one is more anti-tobacco than I am, but for statements like that, I'd like to see some sources. It sounds like big government trying to push aside the influence of parenting, church, school, social network, and the non-Hollywood arts industry. I went on-line and looked at various studies (CDC, BMJ) read through the summaries, then the corrections, then the citations where authors were often citing themselves (bad form), and I even came across one that said that although incidence of smoking in movies was going down, smoking was going up! And yet the letter claims,

"Tobacco imagery delivers nearly 200,000 U.S. adolescents into tobacco addition each year."

I think, if I read correctly, that for a certain percentage of young teens who try smoking, many have seen a movie in the past year where actors were smoking. I don't know how many who try smoking after seeing an R movie (and where are their parents?) have also been taken to concerts, art museums, plays, library story hours, school lyceums, sporting events and school parties. Do they want to buy a hockey stick or a box of watercolors? I hope they've adjusted for other influences. I suspect that the first cigarette needs to be reinforced by some other type of influence--either genetic predisposition, family members who smoke, or peer acceptance or all three. My son, who is trying to stop his 20+ year addiction, says he was hooked after the first cigarette because he liked how it made him feel. Then smoking behavior was reinforced at school, which at that time allowed it on campus. I tried smoking in junior high, and again in college. It didn't do a thing for me, tasted awful and made my clothes and hair stink, plus I had disapproval from friends, so what would be the point? Smoking was probably in every movie I'd ever seen in the 1950s and 60s and when I was in high school, I saw several movies a week. And they really made it look glamorous and fun in those days. Obesity is passing tobacco as a health problem. Especially in childhood. Next: no movies showing restaurants, eating or snacking. No previews announcing food in the lobby. No popcorn allowed.

So guys, if the science is clear, make your citations clear also.

You know who you are

Someone I love is trying to quit smoking. I suggested he take one day at a time, and he assured me an hour might be a bit much. Then I saw this quote at Dancing Boys Mom. Is this great, or what?

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once--Ashleigh Brilliant

I smoked a few cigs in college--had gained some weight. My roommate, daughter of a doctor, thought it might work. Stupid 60s. Fortunately, they tasted so bad, stung my nose, burned my eyes and made my breath stink, so I didn't continue. Can't imagine the attraction for those just starting. That's a lot of hurdles to try to look cool.

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His father's heart

The excerpt from Steve McKee's book, "My father's heart" in today's Wall St. Journal was riveting. I thought I'd forgotten most of that phase of Dad's life. How different it could have been for our family if he hadn't quit when he started to cough up blood.

On Sept. 30, 1969, 16-year-old Steve McKee watched his father die of a heart attack on the couch in their TV room. A lifelong smoker, John McKee had already been stricken by a heart attack six years earlier. But, unable to quit his three-pack-a-day habit, he made no lifestyle changes that might have prolonged his life. Deeply disappointed by his father's seeming surrender to cardiovascular disease, Mr. McKee -- now an editor at The Wall Street Journal -- set out to find the man who died before his son could know him. With this memoir, he sought to find a measure of understanding for his father, and anyone affected by smoking and heart disease. . . .

My father and my father-in-law both stopped smoking cold turkey as they began to move beyond the line of two packs a day. Dad was probably 36 or 37 when he began to cough blood; my husband's father was older, maybe in his 50s when one night out with his friends he started to open that third pack, he put it down and quit. My dad lived to 89; my husband's dad to 91; my husband's step-father, also a very heavy smoker who didn't quit, to 75; my husband's step-mother, also a smoker, died at 71 of lung cancer. All began smoking in their teens and really enjoyed it.

"My sister Kathy and I woke up every morning to the sounds of the same alarm clock: Dad's cough, his cigarette hack. Breath in. Pause. HACK. (Catch) Cough. They came in stanzas--three, four, five at a time, the second-to-last always the biggest crescendo." writes McKee

Oh, I remember that cough. We children had never known anything else but Dad's coughing. And the blue haze everywhere in the house if he was home. In those days, I didn't find the smell unpleasant like I do now. It was always a mix of after shave, hair cream, cigarettes and fuel oil. But what must my mother have thought? Neither of her parents smoked. Her mother was a health-nut--wouldn't even eat red meat, and she was always airing out the house.

Dad told me 40 years later that he wanted a cigarette for 20 years. When I was younger, I didn't think about that too much. But now I'm in awe of his focus, drive and determination. He was not always a pleasant person to be around when I was growing up. I wonder now if he just wanted a cigarette, if his head hurt, his eyes burned and his skin crawled for nicotine. My parents weren't social like McKee's parents. Dad dealt with people all day, 12 hours a day and a houseful of noisy children at night. And all the while, craving a cigarette, knowing that would take the edge off.

I won't be reading the book, but I'll remember it could have been me.

Link to the review is here.

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Addiction in 6th graders

My son began smoking in adolescence, so a recent article in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 2007;161:704-710 didn't surprise me.

10% of children had cravings for nicotine within 2 days of the first inhalation of cigarette smoke

More than 70% of the inhalers had cravings before they were smoking every day



"Results: Among the 217 inhalers, 127 lost autonomy over their tobacco use, 10% having done so within 2 days and 25% having done so within 30 days of first inhaling from a cigarette; half had lost autonomy by the time they were smoking 7 cigarettes per month. Among the 83 inhalers who developed ICD-10–defined dependence, half had done so by the time they were smoking 46 cigarettes per month. At the interview following the onset of ICD-10–defined dependence, the median salivary cotinine concentration of current smokers was 5.35 ng/mL, a level that falls well below the cutoff used to distinguish active from passive smokers."

"Lost autonomy"--interesting phrase, isn't it? He told me one time that he believes he was "hooked" after the first cigarette--sometime around 13 or 14. If you are a smoker, chances are your kids will be too, but it doesn't always work that way. My husband's parents were both chain smokers. Neither he nor his sister liked it and didn't smoke; another brother did. This means he had inhaled the equivalent of 102 packs of cigarettes by the time he was 5 years old. My father smoked until I was about 9, but my sisters and I didn't. Neither my husband nor I smoke, but our son can't break the habit.

I really shudder when I see teens smoking; we were walking behind a group the other night along the lakefront--the oldest being about 16. They just have no idea of the cost and health problems heading their way. They might as well be setting dollar bills on fire and tossing them into Lake Erie.

3909

Beyond hot here in Columbus

Yesterday it was 95 degrees in Columbus, OH. I was on duty for the mail run between our church's Lytham Rd. campus and Mill Run campus in the afternoon. There was road construction everywhere, even turning around after discovering I was blocked was difficult. At the intersection on our road I think I waited 4 lights to turn left.

I was surprised to see a number of people driving with an open window. They were all smokers. Inhaling hot smoke in a hot car, waiting at an even hotter, semi-stalled intersection, to creep along onto fresh hot asphalt, and drive behind trucks spewing more heat and pollution. Now how smart is that?

Smoking. It doesn't just damage your lungs and heart--it must destroy your brain cells too.

3876

Here's a pup you don't want

A few weeks ago I showed a cute puppy that needed a good home. He'd been badly abused. Here's a "puppy" that fits over your oxygen tank if you abuse your lungs with cigarettes. He's called Oxy-Pup and comes in two styles.


This photo is from a display in China and is supposed to represent how many cigarettes one smoker would consume in a year. I saw it at The Laundress, who has now gone a full year without smoking. Good girl.

Another reason to give up smoking

This is a new one on me. Back pain. I've had back problems and pain off and one since my horse fell on me when I was 12 years old. Holding two babies, one on each hip aggrevated it when I was in my late 20s. But I've never been a smoker. Just the mother of one. Now there are new guidelines for aching backs from the NCQA, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (I assume that's medical insurance). $90 billion a year is being spent on x-rays, CT scans, injections and surgeries! Wow.

One of the top suggestions of the guidelines is to quit smoking. Smokers with back pain have more severe back pain that lasts longer and they have poorer outcomes after surgery.

Fear of litigation on the part of doctors is the primary reason you might getting the help you don't need.

Let's see: Cancer; heart disease; lung cancer; wrinkles; body odor; bad breath; slow healing; COPD; and now back pain. Geesh. Smoke gets in your eyes--and everything else, apparently.

Seen in the WSJ.

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Smoking bans

Ireland was the first country to implement a true smoking ban. Not very many states have a ban, but Ohio is one of them. Unfortunately, the legislation is poorly worded, so there will probably be lawsuits. Like if a cross country trucker is driving through Ohio, is it illegal for him to smoke in his cab. Huge parts of Canada are smoke free (although that's sort of to be expected since it is much more socialistic than the U.S.), New Zealand has a full country ban and most of Australia.

I heard two guys on a morning drive/talk radio show discussing this as a loss of freedom. Saying only the restaurant owner should decide, and then determine if he needed smoke-free sections. That view totally ignores the needs of the wait staff, kitchen and janitorial staff, the band and musicians. And as a non-smoker, I could never get away from it even in the non-smoking section of restaurants. I can remember when clerks in stores smoked at the cash register, when librarians smoked in their offices and at public desks, and people smoked inside our church in the classrooms and fellowship hall. It wasn't pleasant. Everyone stunk smelled bad.

Clean air is good for the tax payer (lower health costs which we hope will offset the decrease in tobacco taxes), good for the worker, and good for the brain. So on this issue, I definitely side with the liberals, who are the folks against personal freedom, because the freedom of others matters too. If you have a partial ban now in your city, state or country, eventually it will be total. There's absolutely nothing positive about poisoning yourself and the air around you. Get over it, and get on with living.

Poetry Thursday #14

Today's challenge has two parts. I think I've met it. I'll keep this at the top of the page, but scroll down for other important topics like the weather, fashion, recipes, and global warming.

Part I: Write a poem to, for, or about a poet.

Part II: Write a letter to a poet and then share it with the Poetry Thursday community on Thursday.

I'm writing about and to Wendy Cope, a popular British author and former teacher, who wrote a very brief poem about giving up smoking.

Oh Wendy Cope,
I sure do hope
you still can write
with such delight
and words so tart,
with poems that smart
and clever rhymes
just for our times.
Dear Ms. Cope,

It's difficult for me to fathom the cigarette addiction. When I go to that smoke-free place called Heaven, who will be left on Earth to nag my son who says he was hooked after that first cigarette? I shake my head because I don't understand how anyone could allow shredded, dried up vegetation burning right under the nose to control his life, health and finances. However, then I read the love poem that you wrote a few weeks after giving up smoking in 1985, and the last phrase said it all,

I haven’t finished yet--
I like you more than I would like
To have a cigarette

and I began to understand. And that's what poetry can do. You wrote, "People who have never been addicted to nicotine don’t understand what an intense love poem it is." Oh, and by the way, Ms. Cope, I also want him to find a love like that. Your poem's a two-fer.*

Thank you for your service,
Norma

*A two-fer is slang meaning "two for one." Sometimes it has no hyphen.

3490 Does this smoker bear responsibility

for his lung cancer? Was it his pack a day habit that caused his disease, or was it his employer's fault, or his post 9/11 work environment, or the government? Story here at Overlawyered.

"New York City police officer Cesar Borja died tragically young of lung disease last month. Advocacy groups (including a website that regularly accuses tort reformers of using oversimplified "pop" anecdotes) and Senator Clinton pushed his story to the media to promote a multi-billion-dollar taxpayer giveaway program (that, not incidentally, would provide contingent fees for attorneys) by claiming that Borja was sickened as a hero working "fourteen-hour days in the smoldering pit", and was killed by alleged government lies about the safety of the air (though the government did call for respirators that they admitted Borja didn't wear) and the media bought it in front-page tabloid stories."

We all want to blame someone else when we mess up. It's human. But if you smoke, accept that you will probably die at a younger age, and in much more pain, than if you didn't; don't finger point at your employer who allowed it, or your government which legalized it, or your military unit that supplied it, or your buddies who thought it was cool. You bought them, you lit them, you smoked them. You will suffer.