Saturday, January 20, 2007

Smokin'

The Harvard School of Public Health studied Nicotine levels in cigarettes from 1997 to 2005.
Surprise, surprise it has increased by 11%.
Keeping in mind governments get huge revenue from smokes.
Some researcher type called Howard Koh said this,

“Cigarettes are finely tuned drug delivery devices, designed to perpetrate a tobacco pandemic.”

I’ve never heard a fag summed up so succinctly or so well.
They haven’t come out directly and said,
‘Oi, you are fucking with the nicotine to make ‘em more addicted‘, that would be way too costly in terms of litigation.
So, in Britain, we have huge public ‘give up smoking’ drives. Ask your doctor, ask your pharmacist, buy a patch type advertising because smokers are a burden on the NHS.
It’s US smokers and our taxed fags that are paying for the National Health Service!
Services that the fucking body Nazis are always using, with their pulled muscles, arthritic knees and Jogger’s Nipple from the fucking healthy run they just did.
You know the people I’m talking about. They are always going for physiotherapy on work time. An appointment that has been 4 months in the coming. It’s always MONTHS!
Ask them about their injury and it’s always some Radial, Medial, Testicostical type of strain, that only comes at a certain (high) level of fitness.
Governments CAN’T afford to lose the smokers.
Smoker’s rarely turn up at their doctor’s complaining of a chest infection or a cough.
We don’t go because we KNOW it’s a self inflicted thing, we’re not fucking stupid.
We don’t want some smug wanker, with patches on his elbows, tutting and telling us we ought to give up.
We fucking know that! Fuck off.
When smokers give up they are always at the doctor, whining.

.. DOC.. What’s the trouble?
..ExSmoker.. I have a hideous cough, I’m really wheezy and it burns when I breathe.
..DOC.. Do you smoke?
..ExSmoker.. Ha! Ha! NO!
NO, I fucking don’t!
Now you have got to treat me without any of the holier than thou shit!
Actually, give a toss. Ha! Ha!
Bring on the real drugs Dr Crippen.
None of that over the counter shite I used to muddle through with. No more Over The Counter crap, Robutussin and the stuff with the aroma of creosote.
(Smells nice. Tastes dreadful. Might even be the national drink of Hungary! Or is that Unicum? Either way, both were hideous and I never refuse a ‘National’ drink, or cough medication if I‘m honest!)
I want antibiotics.
Antibiotics that turn me in to a smorgasbord for MRSA and all that other ‘resistant’ nastiness.
Thank you very much.
I DON'T SMOKE!

All those symptoms a regular smoker would just get on with.

See my point?
The NHS can't afford for the smokers to give up!

10 comments:

Schneewittchen said...

The main problem with this equation is that while smoking is estimated to cost the NHS between 1.4 and 1.7 billion pounds per year, it is the government, not the NHS who receives the revenue from tobacco, therefore from an NHS point of view, there is only cost and ppl giving up would in fact save it money.

From the govt's p-o-v, an extra 50 million workdays are lost every year as a result of smoking, however I can't really see why this is a cost to the govt as much as industry.

The main saving to the govt from ppl smoking is that they die significantly earlier.

Sleepy said...

Yep, and the government 'funds' the NHS.
People don't seriously believe their NI contributions cover the NHS?

Schneewittchen said...

Well, admittedly most ppl don't know what goes where, but the NI contribution was originally introduced to cover sickness and unemployment benefit, I think the NHS was introduced much later, so I can't imagine they could have funded it based on an already existing tax - unless the level of contributions increased dramatically then, dunno.

I can see the point of view of the NHS worthies though. My dept was funded by Mayhem and I PERSONALLY was actually making money for Mayhem by having all those teacher training students, did my dept see any of the money? Nope.
For the NHS it would be the reverse of that, the govt no doubt doesn't give them any extra money for dealing with smoking related illness, although I've no doubt that if smoking were no longer costing the NHS all that money, the govt would find some way of re-positioning the goalposts for the funding formula and suddenly they were getting less instead of having more to spend. Well, maybe that's a bit cynical.

LentenStuffe said...

Dubya's looking for a new surgeon general to institute a smoking ban on all revival meetings. I think you'd be perfect for the job. It comes with unusually handsome perks: a lifetime subscription to Cigar Officiando, all the Cubans you want, for as long as you want, and your own tour of Philip Morris Co (ala Charlie & the Chocolate Factory) where you get the inside scoop on the chemical cocktail they put in their smokes ... It's a great position. Can I nominate you?

Sleepy said...

lentenstuffe...
That's my job!
I did apply for 'Black Rod' when they opened it to the public.
Thought I could cope with one day a year and having a door slammed in my face.
Bit like going to ATM's!

TenaciousK said...

Smoker’s rarely turn up at their doctor’s complaining of a chest infection or a cough.

I don't know how it works out on your side of the pond, but in the US, it turns out to be a wash. Anti-smoking campaigners were always going on and on about how much money would be saved, if only people would quit smoking.

When they finally got around to looking at the actual health costs, however, researchers discovered the increased health problems associated with smoking (lung disease, cardiovascular disease, a whole host of cancers, and increased risk of all sorts of other problems) were offset by the cost savings associated with earlier mortality (avoiding late life medical costs, which for many people turn out to be substantial).

Just thought I'd share.

Sleepy said...

tenaciousk....Welcome.
Whether it be not wanting the grief from the doctor or dying early, smokers aren't the burden or expense that people are led to believe.

It's the ones who live for ages with their piffling, poxy illnesses that are the problem.
Like the people who get Alzhiemer's in their 50's and live until they are 90!

TenaciousK said...

Sleepy - thanks! Found you via lentenstuffe's blog. Since he's not talking to me anymore, thought I'd have a look about.

I agree - smokers aren't a burden to healthcare resources. I recently quit, myself, as part of a recommitment to being alive, but I certainly don't blame anyone for doing it. I love the damned things.

Oh, and the Fray's not a bad place. It's just a questionable place that used to be a fantastic place. It's been in decline for a long time, for a variety of reasons. Still, there are a few bright lights left there. The impact of a critical mass of bright minds interacting simultaneously in the same space is sort of like jumping on a trampoline with 20 or so people. Every so often, you catch this perfect bounce...

Sassygril said...

What a wonderful analogy...

I have to say that the people who get me in a frenzy are the fatties. I know that this makes me sound like a health fascist and I am truly not (I have just had pancakes for breakfast and loved every lip smacking bite). But...these people are the ones who are the bane of my working life. Always the ones who are off on the long-term sick (so teaching cover has to be provided - with no pennies to me for so doing), they winge about the 6 weeks they are given to be on the sick without loss of salary (it's too short) and they are often the ones whose time keeping is the shitest and who cannot juggle the complexities of the job...and we're only fucking Uni lecturers...it's piss fucking easy when you don't do any fucking research which pisssing well fries your pea brain....

See. You've got me started again...

Sleepy said...

Sassy... You go girl!
Glad the trip to Hong Kong was relatively pain free.