Lung Cancer Man

[edible_hat]

Lung Cancer Man is an older guy who comes in once a week, asks why we're still selling tobacco products, then points to the health warning poster (ours has a photo of mouth cancer on it) and says:

"I can do one better than that, I've got a big scar from here to here [points to his chest where the scar is, under his clothes] from lung cancer. Thirty years I smoked a pack a day. The tumor was this big [holds hands about 8 inches apart] and now I can't breathe so well. If I ever catch the bastard who got me into cigarettes, I'll kill him."

It's gotten so I can recite the speech along with him, although I never do it out loud.

[friendofjimmyk]

Thirty years I smoked a pack a day. The tumor was this big [holds hands about 8 inches apart] and now I can't breathe so well. If I ever catch the bastard who got me into cigarettes, I'll kill him."

.

No matter how old he is, eventually, he would've heard somewhere along the line that smoking was bad for you. Yet, he continued to do it again and again.

Then, he gets cancer, and wants to find the bastard who got him into cigarettes.

Way to accept responsibility for your actions!

[ebonyknight]

Lung Cancer Man is an older guy who comes in once a week, asks why we're still selling tobacco products, then points to the health warning poster (ours has a photo of mouth cancer on it) and says:

"I can do one better than that, I've got a big scar from here to here [points to his chest where the scar is, under his clothes] from lung cancer. Thirty years I smoked a pack a day. The tumor was this big [holds hands about 8 inches apart] and now I can't breathe so well. If I ever catch the bastard who got me into cigarettes, I'll kill him."

It's gotten so I can recite the speech along with him, although I never do it out loud.

You must live in canada. God forbid big tobacco shows you that smoking can have serious health consequences in the US.

My cousin is Canadian and I saw a pack of his cigarettes. Had a BIG nasty photo of someone with gum cancer on it. He told me that they do that on all the cigs, to discourage smoking.

What a concept!!!!

[workerbee222]

There is no excuse - none - for anyone under the age of, say, fifty, to claim ignorance of the danger of smoking. The Surgeon General's report came out when that generation was too young to even sneak cigarettes from Mom's purse.

Cancer will kill one in four of us anyway. None of us are getting out alive!

[ebonyknight]

No matter how old he is, eventually, he would've heard somewhere along the line that smoking was bad for you. Yet, he continued to do it again and again.

Depending on how old he is, he has a point. Literally up until a few decades ago, there really was no public information that smoking was bad for you. As incredible as it sounds, people before a certain time, thought that there were no ill effects and pointed to some of the benefits (desensitization of taste buds and smell, which was good for factory workers).

Just because something seems so patently obvious now, don't assume that they knew it then. Fewer young people are starting to smoke today because they know of the ill effects. That information wasn't available back when older smokers started. I believe in personal responsibility, but sometimes, the information to make an informed decision is just not provided.

My parents (born in the 30's) used to smoke because it was "fashionable". My father actually smoked and my mother pretended to smoke. Talk to an older person and they will tell you that people were smoking everywhere. Once upon a time, you could smoke in your office at your desk, or if it was restricted, you went to the bathroom.

I believe that, that was his point about wanting to kill the person that got him started.

[morgana]

It's gotten so I can recite the speech along with him, although I never do it out loud.

Might get him to leave you alone if you did . . .

[Misanthropical]

I'm in my 30's and still remember my grandparents smoking at work, in the grocery store, when we went out to eat and in the theater. It wasn't a big deal when I was a child.

So, he may have a point, but that is no reason for him to come in every day and bother you with his crusade.

[Dave1982]

Why do you still sell tobacco products? Because we live in a capitalist society, tobacco is highly profitable, legal, and addictive, and so long as people choose to continue to buy it it will remain profitable! That's why! Now, I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's the truth. And it's more or less the same thing with alcohol and junk food. As long as people buy it, people will sell it.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

Hell, back in the forties and fifties, doctors used to encourage extremely shy people to smoke. They said it 'encouraged socialization'. They also said it assisted digestion. And of course, it was extremely fashionable.

Check THIS out!

[Demonoid Phenomenon]

I don't know that I would need anybody - today or back in the 'old days' - to tell me that inhaling smoke into my lungs was a bad idea.
I mean...seriously.

[blas]

Ya know, my great great grandpa smoked non filter ciggs until the day he died (at nearly 100 years old), grandpa (mom's dad) has been smoking since he was a teen and has no signs of lung cancer.......but my grandma just died of heart disease a few months back.

Meh, I've got a 50/50 chance. I'm gonna die someday anyway. I won't go around blaming big tobacco because I couldn't quit, because I cared more about smoking than gaining weight from quitting smoking. My own problem. My fault.

I'm a big girl. I can say no. I choose not so. No one else's fault. MINE.

[Chromatix]

I suspect that a relatively small number of people are naturally resistant to cancers. My grandfather lived to age 95 - after having switched to a pipe because he couldn't quit smoking entirely. (Pipe smoke is not as harmful, and coincidentally doesn't smell anywhere near as bad.)

Then again, he was already over 50 when my dad appeared.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

"I can do one better than that, I've got a big scar from here to here [points to his chest where the scar is, under his clothes] from lung cancer. Thirty years I smoked a pack a day. The tumor was this big [holds hands about 8 inches apart] and now I can't breathe so well. If I ever catch the bastard who got me into cigarettes, I'll kill him."

So he hasn't yet offed himself because....?

No matter who he saw smoking, or who talked him into taking the habit, he's the one who decided to try it and get hooked on it. He himself is the bastard who got him into cigarettes.

[simpleyme]

selling cigarettes to people who are sick is a part of my job I hate

one guy has almost no voice at all he had some sort of cancer ( I do not remember the details) buys cigs a couple times a week

lady came in last week she could barley walk walking with a cane, and oxygen told me about her terrible back pain and horrible health , she bought cigarettes

another gal has bought cigs for years , she told me she quit smoking ( congrats!) later told me she has cancer then a couple weeks later she comes in to get cigs for a "friend" this friend seems to surpriseingly smoke the same unusual brand that this lady used to smoke what a coincidence

I sell to anyone who is of legal age and never say a word it is none of my business I hate it even worse when 18year olds buy cigarettes ;-( I am a former smoker started when I was 12 quit at age 22

I remember my mom and dad smoking every where . When I was little I remember the teachers would smoke while they watched us during recess ;-) could you imagine that happening now

[Primer]

Not too long ago (1988-ish) I remember smoking in the hallway outside the college classrooms. I still have dreams about smoking *IN* the classroom, even though I don't think I ever really did.

"Not too long ago (1988-ish)" hmmm...I must be getting old...that was 20 years ago!