• balls_expert
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    1 year ago

    https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/14/5/315

    In both sexes, smoking 1–4 cigarettes per day was associated with a significantly higher risk of dying from ischaemic heart disease and from all causes, and from lung cancer in women. .

    https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/smoking-and-cancer/how-does-smoking-cause-cancer#:~:text=and other diseases.-,Reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke a day is,never too late to stop.

    Reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke a day is a good first step. But, there is no safe level of smoking. The best thing you can do for your health is to stop smoking completely

    • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Well there’s really no safe level of anything. Literally everything you do increases your odds of dying. It’s all about proportion. Breathing doesn’t increase your odds of dying very much.

      The conversation around nicotine is severely lacking in comparisons of scale. It’s all like “IF YOU SMOKE LITERALLY ONE CIGARETTE YOU WILL DIE OF HORRIBLE CANCER” which is a ridiculous thing to be putting out there. I get the intent, it’s because cigarettes are addictive and smoking one usually leads to smoking more, but it really makes it difficult to get a sense of how harmful cigarettes actually are at lower dosages.

      That first study you linked was a good one in this regard, but the summary still couldn’t help but tend towards “you smoke at all, you will die”. A graph would be helpful.

      Actually, I’ll just make one.

      • balls_expert
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        1 year ago

        There’s safe levels of a lot of things

        Sugar, nutmegs, magnesium, potassium, capsicin, salt, … all of them becoming an issue if you go past your metabolism’s limits

        I think even cyanide has a safe quantity because it’s in a lot of foods, but I can’t find the source for it

      • break1146
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        1 year ago

        I mean… Breathing doesn’t increase your chance of dying, but not doing it will guarantee it. If you smoke, there is a good chance you will die from a horrible disease. That’s the reality of it. With one cigarettes a day, smoking more will increase that chance.

        • balls_expert
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          1 year ago

          Same for alcohol, lead and absestos btw - no safe quantity has been found for all those

          Every amount has a measurable negative effect with precise enough measurements

    • LeylaaLoveeOP
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      1 year ago

      Cigs are extremely useful for chron’s and other such issues. Not healthy, but you have to understand there is a trade off for quality of life for some people. I could stop smoking, but I’m pretty sure I’d end up spending the extra 20 years I’d be alive as extra time on the toilet 🤷‍♀️