Secondhand Smoke Ups Risk of Mental Illness

[jredheadgirl]

Harley posted this over @ Smoker's Club-

....just when we were thinking that things can't get any nuttier (pun intended)...

http://www.medpagetoday.com/tbindex.cfm?tbid=20529#ayk

[WinstonSmith]

Like most anti-smoking propaganda, any statistical differences can probably be eliminated if you control for financial income.

75% percent of people who smoke make under median financial income. You'll probably find that a similar, or greater percentage of people who suffer from "mental illness" are below median income. There's a much stronger correlation between mental illness and low financial income than there is for smoking.

On the other side of the equation, while the poor have a statistical tendency to smoke, the wealthy have a statistical tendency to consume alcohol. Believe it or not, the majority of people are either teetotalers, or consume a little alcohol on occasion.

This will explain some of the paradoxical results you see the press touting regarding the "healthy benefits" of alcohol consumption, while also explaining why our culture celebrates alcohol consumption, but condemns smoking. It's because the richer tend to drink while the poorer tend to smoke.

Meanwhile, while smoking is attributed to being the cause of more total deaths, alcohol is about equal in total potential years of life lost (TPYLL).

It's the "laundry equation" again. There are basically three kinds of people in America (excluding college students): people who do their laundry in a laundromat, people who have a washer and dryer in their home, and people who probably don't even know how to do laundry because they've never had to do it themselves.

Of the three groups, which do you think is going to, generally, live the longest and healthiest life? Low-wage-renting person, home owning person, or millionaire person?

[gary k]

Actually, only 72%,not 75%.

Other than that, what you have pointed out is very true.

With a few exceptions, disease is more prevalent and life expectancy shorter the lower one is in the SES hierarchy.

It just happens that most smokers(72%) are in the lower SES stratums.

I believe the median family income in this country is $50,000.

Doing the math for the earnings groups up to $49,999 per year, we find that 32.6 million adult smokers earn less than $50,000 per year.

32.6 million smokers is about 72% of the 45 million or so adult smokers in this country.

[jredheadgirl]

...not to mention that we're in a recession that causes, um, a lot of STRESS...and of course, there is all of the stress that is imposed upon smokers from outside forces that use bully tactics in their quest to oppress and MAKE smokers depressed over their lifestyle choice. On another note, the most creative (and fun) people that I have known so far in my life, have tended to be smokers. I don't need a statistician to "prove" that to me because real life experience trumps funny numbers made up in some lab somewhere where the "statisticians" seem to have several pre-existing conditions: 1)smoker hatred 2) control-fever-itus 3) elevated levels of self-importance and piety.