Carbon monoxide is a by-product of tobacco smoke. A report indicates very low levels of carbon monoxide may help victims of heart attacks and strokes. Carbon monoxide inhibits blood clotting, thereby dissolving harmful clots in the arteries. The researchers focused on carbon monoxide's close resemblance to nitric oxide which keeps blood vessels from dilating and prevents the buildup of white blood cells. "Recently nitric oxide has been elevated from a common air pollutant . . . to an [internal] second messenger of utmost physiological importance. Therefore, many of us may not be entirely surprised to learn that carbon monoxide can paradoxically rescue the lung from [cardiovascular blockage] injury." The pharmacological benefits of tobacco are nothing new.
SMOKERS DIE "EARLY"...
While this cannot really be considered scientific evidence, it is a fact nevertheless.
The oldest people on Earth are all smokers.
According to the World Health Organization and the statisticians of the anti-tobacco cartel, however, these are (or will be) all premature deaths, for the simple reason that they are smokers. Therefore, these individuals did (or will) add to the smoking-related death epidemic figures that the charlatans of the numerous anti-tobacco organizations keep waving in front of politicians, media, and public.
FORCES wishes to thank Wanda Hamilton for her usual, meticulously accurate work.
WORLD'S OLDEST -- ALL SMOKERS
(Original compilation by Wanda Hamilton)
The Big 115: another ancient smoker has a birthday party - August 28, 2006 -A reader tipped us off to this story of the ex-smoker, never-drinker who was already six when the U.S. seized Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898. "I never damaged my body with liquor," said Mercado, who quit a 76-year smoking habit when he was 90. Happy birthday, Mr. Mercado del Toro!
The tobacco death toll - February 26, 2003 - Mercilessly, tobacco keeps harvesting an endless number of premature victims. Day after day millions of cigarettes are produced by criminals who KNOW that each and every one of their customers will DIE – and there is no escape, and no more unquestionable truth: if you smoke, you die. This is the case of the late John McMorran, of Lakeland, Florida. He smoked cigars, drank beer and ate greasy food –and now he has paid the dear price for a life turned that stands as an insult to the health crusaders. John was born June 19, 1889, in a log cabin in Michigan, and he was the oldest American living – but he could have lived longer. And that is not all; it is well known that smoking causes blindness and ear problems. In fact, “McMorran's eyesight failed in his final years, and people needed to shout for him to hear them.” What a waste. This is what tobacco does to you. May this epitaph stand as warning to the young, so that they learn to NEVER make John’s mistakes, and turn into statistical deaths.
The Italian Massacre - February 26, 2003 - In the meantime, we get a full dimension of what tobacco does to people in other countries as well. The Italian daily “Libero” has just reported updates on the Tobacco Massacre of Milan last February 6th. Out of a population of 2.2 million in that city, there are 646 people whose lives will, inevitably, be cut short – shortly after they turn 100. Two of them are already 110, five are 109 and 12 are 106. Another 217 are only 100, 167 just turned 101, and 115 are 102. But that’s not over. Over 35,000 Milanese are in the age range between 85 and 94, and another 92,000 are between 75 and 84. You can see them in the polluted Italian city with their dogs, in the typical little bars, indulging in despicable habits such as coffee, grease-filled brioches, alcohol and – worst of all – smoking Tuscan cigars that stink more than any diesel tailpipe, poisoning their peers. Some of them even “do” cigarettes, having indulged in the deadly habit for over 94 years. Imagine how dirty their lungs are. According to the daily, in fact, the overwhelming majority of these people either smokes, drinks, or eats fatty foods. Most even do it all. No wonder the heroic health authorities must intervene to stop the carnage. It’s either now or never!
Tobacco Claims Two More - The Philippines lost one of that country's most prolific and beloved composers and lyricists. Levi Celerio, who wrote the lyrics for more than 4,000 folk, Christmas and love songs, died after a bout of emphysema. Obituaries noted that Mr. Celerio was a chain smoker. He was 91. He is survived by his third wife and the 12 children he managed to father despite the impotence caused by tobacco. From the other side of the world, the United Kingdom morns the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. The mother of Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen Mother was a bon vivant who loved horse racing, gin cocktails and, sadly, cigarettes. It was the latter, the beastly coffin nails, that did her in. She was 101 years old.
Television Pioneer's Life Cut Short - "His trademark cigar rarely left his hand. In an interview two years ago, Berle said he'd smoked cigars since he was 12. "I figure if George Burns can smoke 20 cigars a day his whole life and live to be 100, why should I worry if they're bad for me?" We note the passing of Milton Berle with sadness and anger at a creative life cut short by excessive tobacco use. Mr. Berle died Wednesday from colon cancer. He was 93.
Smoking Kills Famous Director - Succumbing to a life time of smoking, Hollywood director Billy Wilder died Wednesday at the age of 95. The 6-time Oscar winner directed such classics as "Some Like It Hot" and "Sunset Boulevard". His 1955 movie "The Seven Year Itch" made a contemporary icon of Marilyn Monroe's pose over a New York subway vent. The premature deaths of these two well-known victims of tobacco give added urgency to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's campaign to eliminate smoking from movies. Once smoking is banished from the silver screen, the focus can be shifted to the people who make and star in the movies the movies. The carnage must be halted.
Television Pioneer's Life Cut Short - "His trademark cigar rarely left his hand. In an interview two years ago, Berle said he'd smoked cigars since he was 12. "I figure if George Burns can smoke 20 cigars a day his whole life and live to be 100, why should I worry if they're bad for me?" We note the passing of Milton Berle with sadness and anger at a creative life cut short by excessive tobacco use. Mr. Berle died Wednesday from colon cancer. He was 93.
Gregorio Fuentes - Cut Down By Tobacco Before His Time - Gregorio Fuentes, who skippered Ernest Hemingway's fabled fishing boat, the Pilar, for more than 20 years and is said to have been the writer's inspiration for the embattled fisherman in "The Old Man and the Sea," has died. He was 104. Fuentes died of cancer Sunday at his home in Cojimar, the quiet Cuban fishing village about 10 miles east of Havana where Hemingway used to dock the Pilar. Smoking until the end, Fuentes is sad proof that tobacco kills.
John Berry - John Berry, a rugged-faced pipe smoker, a stage and movie director, writer and actor who made more than 50 films and, entangled in the blacklist, exiled himself from Hollywood during the anti-Communist inquests of the 1950s, died Nov. 29, 1999 at his home in Paris. He was 82. Another premature, tobacco-related death, no doubt. We are not kidding. Every smoker who dies is logged as a tobacco-related death to beef up mortality statistics and imply that those who don't smoke are either immortal, or live much longer lives. And when they die (…sorry, IF they die) they are not logged as a tobacco-related deaths even if they died of the identical diseases of smokers. … How else do you think that the anti-tobacco cartel builds up its statistical garbage about the "smoking epidemic?"
Isabella Gibson ready to celebrate her 99th - Another smoker approaches one century of life. Gambling, smoking, and enjoying life does not seem to have cut short the life of this person, though she will certainly be logged as yet another "premature, tobacco-related death" by the crooked statistics desing to create numbers proving the Lie of the Century. Isabella seems to be still in good health, notwithstanding osteoporosis (smoking-related, no doubt). Happy birthday, Isabella -- and keep on smokin'!
Wencelao Moreno: another victim bites the dust - It's with extreme sadness that we report the sad demise of Wencelao Moreno of a smoking related illness. Mr. Moreno, better known as "Senor Wences" of the "Ed Sullivan Show" was 103. During the benighted era when ash resided in ash trays rather than dictating policy in Washington, Senor Wences joked, drank and smoked with his puppets on T.V. All his puppets died of secondhand smoke decades ago. Although his premature passing is sad, his death is warning to us all that smoking kills.
Mme Jeanne Calment, who was listed as the world's oldest human whose birth date could be certified, died at 122. She had begun smoking as a young woman. At 117 she quit smoking (by that age she was just smoking two or three cigarettes per day because she was blind and was too proud to ask often for someone to light her cigarettes for her). But she resumed smoking when she was 118 because, as she said, not smoking made her miserable and she was too old to be made miserable. She also said to her doctor: "Once you've lived as long as me, only then can you tell me not to smoke." Good point! [USA Today, "Way to go, champ," 10/18/95].
When Mme. Calment died at 122 in l997, the new longevity champ became 116-year-old Marie-Louise Meilleur, of Canada. Mme. Meilleur had chain-smoked all her adult life (as her grandson said, "She always had a cigarette dangling from her lips as she worked,"--AP, 8/15/97, reported in Miami Herald, p. 2A). She did give up smoking, however, when she was nearly 100.
The world's oldest man is (unless he has died since the last report I have, which is l997) Christian Mortensen, ll4 in l997,who has been a cigar smoker for most of his life--and still smokes them. [San Francisco Chronicle, "114 and Still Smoking," Peter Fimrite, 8/5/97, p.A13].
Britain's oldest man, George Cook, died at 108 in his sleep in September, l997. He "smoked heavily for 85 years before giving up tobacco at the age of 97," ("World Briefs," Houston Chronicle, 9/29/97).
The Scottish Daily Record (12/15/97) reported on Ivy Leighton, 100, who smoked 20 cigarettes a day for 84 years, but cut down somewhat after her 100th birthday. April claimed smoking was the key to her long life.
There are two men who claim to be the world's oldest living humans, but their birth dates cannot be certified. One is Ali Mohammed Hussein, who claimed to be 135, of Lebanon. He "smokes like a chimney," but does not drink alcohol [CNN World News, "Born in l862," Brent Sadler, 5/13/l997].
The title is also claimed by Narayan Chaudhari, a Nepalese man who says he is 141. However, his birth date also cannot be certified. He too is a heavy smoker and says the secret of his longevity is "raw tobacco and no alcohol." [Nando net, Agence France-Press, "Nepalese man claims to be 141, which would make him world's oldest", 2/12/98].
-Smoking causes cancer. Absolutely. Positively. There must be no doubt whatsoever about that. It is proven. That statement, along with the biblical multiplication of the statistical fish concerning “tobacco-related” death and disease is now the ritual, idiotic opening or closing line of most articles about smoking (even many anti-prohibition ones). Without it, the article is "not worth reading" – because it is not "believable" – so the holy bible of superstition must be ritually kissed as a sign of submission to the credo before opening any issue on smoking. Smoking causes cancer. Any study to the contrary must be thoroughly investigated -- to check if the grandpa of one of the researchers just happened to work for a tobacco farmer, so that the study can be discredited on those grounds. If the search turns out to be negative, then the study must be utterly ignored. There can be no heresy: smoking causes cancer – never forget that, in any of your waking hours – rather, dream about it too. No matter how many studies cannot prove it – those are worth nothing. Instead, consider only those which corroborate what you must believe -- to be considered intelligent, bright, modern, healthy, and educated. Knowledge is dangerous: you do not know that not even one of the millions of “tobacco-related” statistical deaths can be proven to be caused uniquely by smoking – and God forbid that the thought that it's impossible even to calculate the contribution of smoking to one single death or disease (thus the “social cost”) crosses your mind. There ARE millions and millions of deaths – there are! -- to scare smokers with, because smoking is bad, bad, BAD. And since the high priests of junk science (sorry: "public health") cannot make an act of (real) science, you must make an act of faith in their holy words for your own good – rather, a leap of faith – or you will be punished, and you’ll suffer from a horrible, horrible tax (and death). Amen.
