here is my analagy...
you have a 1 in 6 chance of dieing from a game of russian ruelette. Do you take the chance or not? It "may cause death" but it may not. not everyone will die from it but your odds of dieing are pretty good.

after you play more than once your odds of dieing increase.

same with anything today though, somehtings have more risk than others. I choose not to do taht to my self though.

depending on how much you take and how big you are and how soo nyou are sent to the hospital you migh not die from rat poison either. And the difference between that nad ciggarettes is that people do not sell people rat poison for their ingestion but rats digestion and there for do not market it to suicidal people. BUt to say ciggerettes, chew, and other tobacco products are a leading cause of cancer is ignorance. everyone might not get cancer from it but most get enphesema (sp?) and many other lung related deseases from smoking ciggerettes. It just like sitting in a smoking building. if you inhale to much you die from smoke damage to the lungs. There are many things on the earth that connot be definitely proven but it doesnt mean that it doesnt happen to a majority of people htat smoke. Your odds are against you.

I just read a news article. It seems that Phillip Morris hid defective cigarette filters for years.

www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992027

check out the article and then tell me what you think about Phillip Morris.

'This product may cause lung cancer' - The Surgeon General

I believe our governmenal leader of healt speaks for himself. If 'this product' did give you lung cancer, there would be no 'may' in the add.

If a person drinks a bottle of rat posion and dies, is it the company that makes the rat poison to blame?

Marine16, you obviously are adamantly in support of the tobacco companies. If you want to choose the road of ignorance, so be it.

I'm not willing to waste any more time trying to prove my point, because it's obvious you're not listening.

Have fun smoking three packs a day. (But be warned, you'll die at least 8 years quicker than me.)

they are simply trying to put facts out for people to read, to warn them of things that happen because of smoking.

Tobacco can lead to many causes of death. It can litterally shut down your lungs. Not everyone will die from related illnesses because not everyone has the same body. You are saying the same thing as aids isnt deadly because it doenst dirrectly cause death. People that die from aids ussually die from pnemonia or something like that but the reason they die is aides. Not only do ciggerettes cause deaths they can cause many problems that are not fun to live with. They cause cancer which is something you can die from. Yeah you die from cancer, not from the cigerette, but its the same thing because you got cancer from the cigerette (they also cause weight problems, asthma and many other things). Cigerettes may not dirrectly kill people but they kill inderectly

Atomicsneeze, I keep saying the same thing over and over because it is all that is needed to prove my point. My arguement is that the government can't prove tobacco is deadly. Your arguement is that tobacco is harmful. Your opinion is backed by several links that all say tobacco is 'likley' to be harmful. If tobacco is so harmful, why don't your links say that tobacco IS harmful to your health? You and I both know the answer to this: because they have no facts, just correlations (Correlations, mind you, are not facts.). And correlations, are not enough to send 2 millions people home without a job. That is the much more decent that any arguement you have provided. Until you can prove me wrong, that tobacco IS harmful, you should stop arguing (And don't tell me it is dedly because all those statistics that 400,000 die from tobacco are based on dieses that were 'likley' to come from tobacco.). Atomicsneeze, I feel like I'm tallking to a brick wall. Why is that?

If tobacco is so deadly, why are they still open?

I, from this point on, refuse to recognize The Trueth as a valid source. I refuse to recognize it, despite their mission statement, because they have made it clear that one of their agendas is closing down the tobacco industry (This is made evident through their various commericals that are simply grasping for straws.).

look at these...
here are two sites about the truth.
#1: They are not trying to ban smoking! read this quick message from them:
http://www.thetruth.com/html/index.cfm?id=10
#2: Read this other quick message about their criticism of the tobacco companies:
http://www.thetruth.com/html/index.cfm?id=12

take a look, because you obviously haven't looked at the Truth's site yet, because you're wrong about their mission. Like I said before, DO YOUR RESEARCH, before you contradict or criticize my points.

Marine16, you say the same thing every time. Haven't I made it clear? SEVERAL government organizations have stated that TOBACCO HAS DEADLY EFFECTS. How is that not proof? LOOK HERE: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/1333.html and at the link I posted below.

open your eyes, stop calling me a liar, and come up with some new or decent arguments!

Marine 16, why the heck isn't a correlation enough?? It CAN kill you. Why do you need more than that?

Atomicsneeze, you wrote this yourself...

'Male smokers are 22 times more likely to develop lung cancer and 27 times more likely to develop mouth cancer than non-smokers.'

Why does it say likley? Why doesn't it says 'Male smokers WILL developed lung cancer' and 'Male smokers WILL develope mouthcancer'? It doesn't say that because they can't prove it. They simply can make a correlation, an assumption.

Is in assumption anything to give an industry a black eye over? No, and it is ingorant to argue against that.

As for The Trueth. I will not consider their site a valid source. Their goal, their only goal, is closing down the tobacco industry. They will stop at absolutley nothing to do it. They are blinded by their goal. The Trueth is blinded by that FACT that the tobacco industry doesn't force anyone to smoke? They are blinded by the fact that the tobacco industry doesn't hold a gun to someone's head and force them to buy their product.

As I said, if you want The Trueth, write Phillip Morris and ask for their opinion. If they lied to you, they would be fighting federal law.

The World Health Organization says that 10 people die every second FROM TOBACCO USE. This organization is stating that TOBACCO IS THE DIRECT CAUSE OF DEATH. I swear, Marine16, you don't even read my postings.

And for the record, theTRUTH.com says that it puts a lot of effort into present ACCURATE facts, many of which I have posted here. Marine, please LOOK at this link: http://www.thetruth.com/html/index.cfm?id=9 and maybe take a chance to explore the site (go back to thetruth.com and explore with FLASH if you can).

The TRUTH gets their carefully reviewed AND researched information from organizations like the Centers for Disease Control, the American Cancer Society, AND A GOVERNMENT AGENCY, THE FOOD and DRUG ADMINISTRATION.

This is what you wanted, Marine16. A GOVERNMENT agency is stating that smoking CAUSES cancer, and CAN CAUSE DEATH. What more do you want?

You are making false accusations at me. I have done my research, now you do YOURS!

Atomicsneeze, you feel I am not fighting ignorance, but the trueth? I am fightning the most ignorant arguements I have ever heard.

The government makes the tobacco industry fund organizations like The Trueth. Why don't you write the government and ask them? Why don't you write Phillip and Morris and ask them? Why don't you write The Trueth and similar organizations and ask the? I think you need to check your source before you speak.

The most ignorant thing I have heard on this site was posted by you, Atomicsneeze. You wrote that smokers are more LIKLEY to acquire lung cancer. How come it doesn't say that smokers WILL acquire lung cancer? (That's a rhetorical question and I shouldn't even dignify it with a response, but sadly I must.) It doesn't say that smoker WILL get lung cancer because they can't prove it. All they can say is that there is a correlation between smoking and lung cancer. If they could prove it they would say that smokers WILL get lung cancer. And as for these 430,000 people who die each from smoking. These people died from dieses that were LIKLY to have come from tobacco.

All the proof we need comes from the Surgeon General's warnings. My challenge still stands. Find me any Surgeao General's warning that says 'This product will kill you' or 'This product will give you lung cancer'. Until a Suregeon General's warning is made that says this, it doesn't matter what carcingoens and poisons are put in tobacco.

Should we close an entire industry based on correlations and assumptions? No. Should we, as people, base our opinions on organziation who are so biast they are blinded in their quest to close down everything that hase to do with tobacco? No. Everyone who is using The Trueth as their back should e-mail Phillip and Morris and ask for their take on the matter. They wouldn't lie. If they lied they would violate Federal laws.

Hey, Marine16-- I am not ignorant. You are not fighting ignorance. You are fighting the truth.

And actually, Marine16, "The Truth" does not get its money from the tobacco industry. It receives ALL of its funding from The American Legacy Foundation. Maybe you should check your sources as thoroughly as the rest of us do.

Now that is out of the way, let's move on to some interesting facts...

--Every 10 seconds, someone dies FROM tobacco use, says the World Health Organization
(note the source, Marine16. This is proof from a federal GLOBAL organization.) That's about 1200 people every single day. OR 430,000 people each year (in America alone).

--Tobacco companies spend $15 millon a day on advertising.

--Male smokers are 22 times more likely to develop lung cancer and 27 times more likely to develop mouth cancer than non-smokers.

--Female smokers are 10 times more likely to develop cancer of the esophagus.

--On average, cigarette smoking costs about $40 a week.

--In each puff of cigarette smoke, you inhale 43 carcinogens (an agent causing or inciting cancer) and 103 poisons.

Don't you think that we should have the power to ban products for human consumption that contain carcinogens and poison? Don't you think that a product that has all the risks involved would be banned from the market? Help stop the tobacco companies.

Sources: The American Council on Science and Health, The World Health Organization, and thetruth.com

Bushsupporter, thank God you are finally back because it is, as I am sure you well know, hard to fight ignorance by yourself. I look forward to refreshing my mind with all of your upcoming opinions, as I sure, are you.

Now, to everyone else. Everyone who keeps telling me tobacco does kill. Go find one, just one, surgean general warning that says 'This product will kill you' (Or something along those lines.).

And as for all of you who like The Trueth. Do you know who, out of the goodness of their hearts, funds them? The Tobacco Industry. All of you who are against the tobacco industry and like the trueth are hypocrites. How can you support an organzization that is funded by what youe hate? That makes me sick.

Please hold your applause; after a long weekend of learning and research The Bastion of Truth has returned to push back the frontiers of ignorance. Have no fear.

I asked you a simple question, heaven: Do you want to see 2 million people without jobs. The answer is undeniably no, I'm sure. Why should they be shut down(another simple question)? I had a hard time understanding the relevance of your hypothetical, but I will respond, however. I don't believe it is a very good, or fair analogy to say that getting AIDS is the same thing as POSSIBLY getting emphysema. It is a ploy on your part in order to make the tobbacco companies look like they do things intentionally and to make them look like they give deadly diseases.

The tobbacco industries' products MAY be harmful but we should not shut them down. IT is a choice to smoke. Alcohol injures and kills more than tobbacco does; it even kills people who don't drink, which is worse than people who make the choice dying. Should we shut them down. No. It is a choice to do it and people die but that is the price that we pay for living in a FREE society.

"Freedom is not Free"-Korean War Memorial, Washington DC.

Heavan021, I can't believe what I am hearing! The government hasn't proved that smoking kills people? They admit that it MAY be harmful to you r health, but the do not admit that it kills you (Evceryone who argues this fact go buy a pack of cigaretts or chew and read the warnings. If you aren't 18, then look at ads. NONE of them say anything about tobacco killing people.).

Do you want, Heaven021, thousands of people to loose their job because tobacco 'may' be harmful to someones health.

The tobacco industry is not in the buisness of killing people. It is in the buisness of providing people with something they enjoy doing so everyone needs to stop infering that the tobacco industry wants to kill everyone who buys their product.

are you kidding me bushsupporter????

here's another example of the concept you are posting that we shouldn't close down the smoking industry because people would be out of jobs:

Let's say that there's a billion dollar company whose product gives people aids, (this is hypothetical). millions die from it and millions use it. But you say, ooh, we can't shut it down, because people would be out of jobs.

c'mon..

OK, I see. I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to blame the tobacco industries for mothers smoking or 2nd-hand smoke. I am just supporting the advocation of the facts to society and stuff. People just need to be aware of the facts, which they get from "The Truth" and other campaigns. Thanks.