Take a look at the commercial diving industry, there around 90% of the
divers are smokers!

Jerry

Trey wrote:
> 
> 2 words out of your post say it all : 1) addiction, 2) money. Sounds like
> deep air and training agencies.
> 
> What mazes me when I go to a public dive site, a dive store or a dive boat
> is the number of INSTRUCTORS who smoke. These guys are the scumbags who are
> setting the bad example. These will be your same ones who are into the deep
> air, bullshit gear, fat slobbery, etc.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joel Markwell <joeldm@mi*.co*>
> To: Techdiver <techdiver@aq*.co*>; Cavers <cavers@cavers.com>
> Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 12:29 AM
> Subject: Smoking and Diving
> 
> >There's been a discussion here on Techdiver about drug testing and how in
> >some cases random drug testing nets a lot of divers in the commercial
> diving
> >industry. But there's another drug we should consider.
> >
> >One thing that I never expected when I started scuba diving was the large
> >number of divers, especially instructors, who smoked cigarettes. When I
> took
> >up cave diving it was even more stunning to me how many smoked.
> >
> >Last year my Mother died of lung cancer. It took her two years to die and
> >many dozens of hours sitting in a chair with an IV in her arm being infused
> >with toxic chemicals, but not so much toxicity that it would kill her
> before
> >it killed her cancer. As a result of those chemicals, she lost all of her
> >hair and couldn't eat. She also got irradiation treatment and the procedure
> >burned her skin and made her sicker. In the last months my Father became
> >desperate to find someone who could save her. He changed treatments and she
> >lived a little longer. She always smiled, she rarely complained--you'd
> think
> >she wasn't sick. She died a little over a year ago - of a cancer related to
> >cigarette smoking.
> >
> >My Father lived another nine months and died on New Year's eve. He was
> >victim number two even though he didn't smoke, but he'll never show up on a
> >smoking death statistic.
> >
> >470,000 people die each year from tobacco use. This compares to 1,000
> deaths
> >due to alcohol abuse or 10,000 deaths due to murders. The annual death
> count
> >due to tobacco use is equivalent to two jumbo jets crashing EVERY DAY with
> >no survivors. Imagine.
> >
> >The chemicals found in tobacco are so toxic that you can't dump them in a
> >landfill.
> >
> > 3,000 kids become regular smokers each day ... one MILLION each year.
> >Year-to-date, 110,000 kids have become daily smokers. Smoking before the
> age
> >of 15 versus the age of 25 puts them at TEN TIMES more risk to get cancer.
> >82% of adults who smoke started before the age of 18. My Mother smoked most
> >of her life.
> >
> >Smoking racks up $50 Billion a year in direct medical costs.
> >
> >The tobacco industry spends more than $6 Billion annually in advertising
> >programs directed at getting new smokers - targeting children, women, and
> >minorities.
> >
> > How? Movies, advertising outside schools (targeted billboard campaigns),
> >free gifts, and misleading advertising stating that smoking is healthy,
> >"cool" and fun.
> >
> > The tobacco industry uses science to obfuscate the truth and generate
> >controversy. They hide and lie to the public about the dangers of tobacco
> >use and nicotine addiction. They put profits ahead of public health and
> >safety. They have lead an advertising campaign that arouses their addicted
> >millions to believe that somehow the effort to educate them about
> cigarettes
> >and to make smoking in public more difficult is somehow a civil rights
> >issue. They want you to believe that smokers who die from cigarette smoking
> >deserve what they get because, hey, it says it right there on the pack:
> >Cigarette Smoking May be Harmful to Your Heath.
> >
> >All those happy, smoking people who die unknown in the privacy of their
> >beds. They just disappear. It isn't like an airline disaster, it's quiet
> and
> >private. And because of that it's just a part of the scenery . . . nothing
> >to get upset about.
> >
> >We all have the right to kill ourselves so long as we are endangering no
> one
> >else. But if no adults smoked and there was no market for it do you think
> >that any children would start? If there was no cigarette money for
> >advertising and sports endorsements and for all those colorful clothes and
> >bags and belt buckles, would kids still know how "cool" it was?
> >
> >As long as we are discussing the impact of drugs on sport, specifically
> >diving, and the potential for injury and death, I wonder if smoking
> >shouldn't be included in that discussion? How many people died last year
> >from marijuana? I couldn't find any statistics anywhere, even in the
> usually
> >paranoid and slanted government literature. The pro-pot pages say "0." The
> >picture I have is of a railroad driver who got stoned and ran into a
> busload
> >of kids. I don't know if it's true, but that's how they say pot kills you.
> I
> >smoked pot from the time I was 18 until my son turned 11. I didn't want him
> >to use me as an excuse to smoke pot. None of the joints I smoked gave me
> >half the pleasure and satisfaction that diving does.
> >
> >Drugs alter your perceptions and that could be fatal to a diver given that
> >diving itself can alter your perceptions. Death could certainly follow in
> >stressful situations. So sure, pot could kill.
> >
> >But what kind of numbers are we talking about here? 10? 100? How does that
> >compare to 470,000 annually? I wonder how many divers around the world have
> >died from smoking related illnesses? My guess is that it would eclipse by
> >many, many times the deaths from all other causes.
> >
> >In the last weeks as the cancer consumed my Mother she weighed almost
> >nothing. Her eyes were sunken in her head, her skin discolored. She stopped
> >wearing the wig she had bought to hide her baldness. She had to sit in a
> >chair to sleep because the cancer prevented her from breathing when lying
> >down. Every breath was a wheezing effort and every breath caused her pain.
> >On March 12th, early in the morning, she asked my Father to lie with her on
> >the bed and with his arm around her that is where she died. She died from
> >smoking those satisfying cigarettes that she just couldn't quit.
> >
> >Enjoy.
> >
> >JoeL
> >
> >

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