Tobacco and alcohol

Smoking, now that it is regulated in public spaces, really only hurts the smoker while alcohol has the potential to hurt many others as well as the imbiber.

However, you cannot smoke 'in moderation' and escape serious consequences whereas with alcohol you can indulge moderately and do next to no harm.

Smoking does also hurt their family, children etc if they smoke at home or in the car.

Many start with relaxing with a glass of wine, they become alcoholics , no one chooses to be an alcoholic , it just happens

Smokers are aware of the harm they are doing to their health, many who drink are in denial that they cannot stop

One difference between smoking and alcohol is that smokers are almost always addicted and smoke regularly throughout the day, every day. With Alcohol many people would only drink a toast at a wedding or a glass of wine with Christmas dinner. Most drinkers are occasional and not addicts, most smokers are addicts.

The key difference is that there is a safe level of drinking alcohol & it is life enhancing -there is NO safe level of smoking and it is entirely destructive

Does anyone really need alcoholic to enance their life, I think that's rather sad

This has really wound me up! I am a (retired) nurse from the USA. I NEVER smoked until I came to England in 1999. Without boring everyone, I was socially pressured, at the age of 49, to take up smoking. 'have a menthol, go on' as a cigarette was passed down the bar to me. I bought my first pack of menthols at the age of 49. I have happily smoked for the past 15 years. Whilst I put up with ALL the smokers in my youth (parents included, partners included) I was never tempted. But once I started I really enjoyed it. When it became illegal in pubs etc in 2007 or 2008, I became one of the pariahs, standing in doorways in the rain etc. My health has not (so far) been affected. But the price of the fags has put it out of my budget, so I 'quit' two months ago for financial reasons. After I was feeling confident, I bought a pack of 10 menthols and smoked them over a 3 week period, when out with friends. Now they are threatening to ban menthols in 2020??? Please! I will start stockpiling. Sorry, but I agree with most posters on this thread - alcohol is SO much more dangerous and socially unacceptable. One of the reasons I was glad to leave the USA was not the 'nanny state' of government telling you what to do - it was friends asking if I was 'sure' I wanted that second glass of wine, and my favourite, at a restaurant in kansas when I had dogs in the car and ordered a large steak, the waitress said ' Are you sure you want that much red meat ma'm'. For the LOVE OF GOD

If most drinkers are occasional and not addicts why is so much made of having a dry January as though it is incredibly difficult to abstain that long. Often wondered.

Well, alcohol wasn't life enhancing for my elder daughter when she was raped two years ago, and I doubt the family of a young soldier who was kicked to death in this area two weeks ago think it has enhanced their life or the family of the drunken young man who did the kicking and has been charged with murder

When I hear young people are drinking less, am I being cynical when I fear they've turned to drugs instead?

Legal highs are becoming very popular

Yes I agree about smoking-I've seen the struggle so many have to give it up, it truly is as addictive as heroin. I saw my own dear parents and in laws die awful premature deaths all because of smoking-vile habit.
I just can't understand how we've reached this state over alcohol. As others said the availability of alcohol cheaply at all hours is just incredible-how will we ever get this genie back in the bottle? Cafe culture indeed! To see youngsters ruining their health with binge drinking is really scary. It seems that the idea of a good night out is to get bladdered. What a waste of money.
And the cost to us all in terms of health care, police is astronomic.
Street Pastors go out at night to provide help which is admirable but I wonder if they've ever approached the breweries/distillers to fund their service? The ones who profit should pay for all this extra expense IMHO.

Maybe if they stopped the advertising of alcohol the same as tobacco it would not look so appealing. They are getting younger and younger the drinkers and like a lot of people have said supermarkets own brand alcohol is so cheap sometimes a can of basic lager is cheaper than a bottle of water. If you are alcohol dependant you can also claim more in benefits which only feeds the habit and increases the welfare bill. Having said all that in my opinion alcohol is more a drain on society on the whole than tobacco

Er....actually there's been a small decline in drinking amongst all age groups since 2007.

The largest amount of alcohol is, in fact, consumed by 45-64 year olds. That's us!.

Show me one disease that smokers get that non-smokers don't get too and I will then believe in smoking related diseases. However it isn't epidemiology but statistical risk and relative risk of small risks are still small even if risks double.

Just because some people abuse alcohol, and I had have lots of experience of this in my life, I do not feel that stigmatising alcohol or individuals is a way to go.

Anniebach, I just joined so that I could tell you that I have never thought of drinking the way you said, I have so led a sheltered life, but you are so right, well done my mate.

Thank you Gonosuch.

2much2say No, but those who DO smoke tobacco have a far greater risk than those who have stopped or who have never smoked. If they need major surgery for any reason, smoking is a recognised risk factor affecting healing and leads to more chest and wound infections.

From www.therapy-store.com/smoking/women__tobacco.htm
"Health Effects and Mortality"

"Cigarette smoking kills an estimated 178,000 women in the United States annually.1 The three leading smoking-related causes of death in women are lung cancer (44,000), heart disease (41,000), and chronic lung disease (37,500)."

"Ninety percent of all lung cancer deaths in women smokers are attributable to smoking.2 Since 1950, lung cancer deaths among women have increased by more than 600%. By 1987, lung cancer had surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women."

"Women who smoke have an increased risk for other cancers, including cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx (voice box), esophagus, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and uterine cervix. Women who smoke double their risk for developing coronary heart disease and increase by more than ten-fold their likelihood of dying from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."

"Cigarette smoking increases the risk for infertility, preterm delivery, stillbirth, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)."

"Postmenopausal women who smoke have lower bone density than women who never smoked. Women who smoke have an increased risk for hip fracture than never smokers."

But just you keep your head firmly in the sand, then you won't notice any problems until you are ensconced in intensive care with an infected wound and pneumonia after a lung has been removed.

And smokers do not end up in A @ E . Police cells. Prison. Whilst smoking causes health problems alcohol destroys families .