ধুমপান(স্মোকিং) নিয়ে বিরুপ কথা শুনতে শুনতে আমি হতাশ। স্মোকিং এর ভালো ভালো দিক গুলো কি কারো চোখে ই পরলো না !!!! প্রায়ই আমাকে উপদেশটা শুনতে হয়......"Smoking can kill you" , আমি বলি..."Oh really?! ননস্মোকাররা কি সারাজীবন বাচে নাকি!"... ননস্মোকাররা সবাই এতো বোকা হয় কেন বলুনতো!

স্মোকিং এর সুবাদে আপনি কিন্তু অনেক সুবিধা আদায় করে নিতে পারেন: ধরুন, আপনি আপনার প্রেয়সীর কাছ থেকে বেশি বেশি চুমু পেতে ওর সামনে বেশী বেশি স্মোক করতে পারেন, আর বলতে পারেন "Darling, আমার ঠোট দুটো যদি তুমি busy না রাখো তবে সিগারেট ই আমার ঠোট দুটো কে busy রাখবে, so......"


স্মোকারদের বিরুদ্ধে অনেক কিছু শুনেছেন এ পর্যন্ত, শুনুন তাহলে স্মোকারদের কি বলার থাকতে পারে (নেট থেকে সংগ্রহ করা):

1. Smoking increases concentration.

2. People often go with the general sentiment on things like these, most of what you hear is Nonsense! Cases of cancer are linked with smoking, but it's not prooved. Only 1 in 3 of us will get lung cancer. (By "us" I also include non smokers).

3. Smokers are a mistreated lot, since this habit has been banned from workplaces, restaurants, buses, subways and planes. You don't think they'd outlaw breathing for God's sake.

4. Smokers have the only real community that's left in the workplace today.

5. Smokers suffer from less stress, since they actually take a few breaks per day.

6. That confusion about second hand smoking is a load of crap. it's just a phrase made up to get normal people who earlier didn't care about it, to go and further persecute the smokers.

7. It's cool to smoke. Ever seen a hacker or a real artist with a health shake?

8. Smokers support the economy by paying all those taxes, which *AHEM* some of us don't.

9. Warning: ‘The Doctor fails to warn you that non-smokers die every day, not only smokers!’

10. Studies have shown that prolonged contact (as in several years) with second hand smoking can cause mild lung problems. Second hand smoke has no immediate harmful effects.

11. Actually, why not just ban non-smokers?

12. Too much is made of the 4000 chemicals that make up a cigarette. Several carcinogens found in cigarettes are found in peppers, carrots, strawberries, tomatoes, onions and grapefruit.

13. Believe it or not, nicotine is actually "a surprisingly potent drug for a variety of diseases that afflict the brain, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Tourette’s syndrome." (An image makeover for nicotine: It shows promise against brain diseases, HealthCentral.com - Feb. 21, 2000) Smokers have a 60% lower risk of Parkinson's disease.

14. Nicotine has a positive effect on ulcerative colitis, which is an inflammation of the stomach lining, and this disorder affects nonsmokers more than smokers.

15. Smokers actually recovered better from a heart attack than nonsmokers

16. Smoking was found to reduce the risk of estrogen-dependent endometrial cancer (dunno what that means, it just sounds really cool)

17. Schizophrenics (4 million Americans) who smoke can get enough nicotine stimulation to switch on a brain receptor that helps filter information.

18. Stanford researchers have discovered that low doses of nicotine - a major component of cigarette smoke - appear to promote new blood vessel growth (in mice). (“Nicotine to be used to treat heart disease,” Reuters Health, HealthCentral.com - Sept. 2000)

19. Alcohol is even more harmful than smoking. Yet not much is said against it as compared to smoking. Half a bottle of wine can supply you with 32-40 times the amount of lead a whole pack of smokes can give you.

20. "Sick smokers may burden a country's health care system but dead smokers save governments money"