Suspected tobacco dealers busted in death of 440,000 Americans.....

[hedgehog]

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/


Unfortunately, that's one head line we'll never see outside a PSA.

[dipsydoodle]

1. New US estimates link obesity to 18% of deaths.

"Obesity killing more people than thought," reports Sky News, which is among many media outlets that fail to mention that the headline is based on estimates of US obesity-related deaths.

Researchers wanted to know whether being overweight or obese was associated with increased risk of death among people in the US. They believed previous research had underestimated obesity-related deaths because of a failure to account for the different ways in which obesity can harm health.

They used data from nationally representative surveys over a 20-year period and estimated the percentage of "excess" deaths associated with being overweight or obese. Overall, they estimated that being overweight or obese accounted for about 18% of US deaths for people aged 40 to 85 years between 1986 and 2006.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/08August/Pages/new-US-estimates-link-obesity-to-18-per-cent-of-deaths.aspx

US annual mortality rate is 2.5 million http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/us-mortality-rate_n_1953215.html of which 18% is 450,000.

[hedgehog]

2. Well, the difference is that food is not a killer, excess use of food is.

With tobacco or heroin, there appears to be no safe usage. I'm just commenting on how we accept tobacco deaths but get all bent out of shape when heroin is involved.

[indepat]

3. And not to forget that god-awful marijuana that has killed gazillions and has no known beneficial

use, even medical, if one cares to buy into to the right-wing purveyors of humongous lies and distortions.

[hedgehog]

4. Marijuna is not for me, but I am damned tired of paying to lock people up

over it!

[indepat]

5. Have never ever used the stuff in any form, but I too am damned tired of government

spending gazillions to arrest, incarcerate, and consequently ruin/mar the lives of a goodly portion of those caught up in this ludicrous and discriminatory travesty.

[Alan Selk]

6. It's not tobacco that kills, it's the smoke.

What the science actually tells us is that smokeless tobacco is about 99% less harmful the smoking. It's not tobacco or nicotine that kills, it's smoking.

http://tobaccoharmreduction.org/faq/harmreduction.htm

The risk from smokeless tobacco is so small that it doesn't show up on population studies. The 1% risk factor compared to cigarettes is mostly theoretical as nicotine may cause a slight increase in heart issues (it is a stimulant similar to caffeine). Numbers that small simply don't show up in studies.

It's the products of combustion that when inhaled that is the killer. Get rid of that and you eliminate the vast majority of harm.