So screams the 'Mail' headline. You'd think it was a foregone conclusion, yes?
Well:
Lynda Mitchell, 52, is dying from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, but has always despised tobacco.She blames the illness. Not doctors. Who'd be able to claim, with 100% scientific accuracy, that it was the smoking that did it?
The mother of one blames the illness on her parents who each puffed 60 cigarettes a day.
Especially when...
Lynda suffered a severe bout of pneumonia at the ageof one and went on to develop serious asthma.So, that's not what led to her COPD, then?
She added: 'I'm proof that second hand smoking can kill.Really?
My parents both smoked, in the car and out of it. Am I proof that second-hand smoke doesn't lead to COPD, then, since I'm not affected? Is a friend of the family, who has never smoked and whose parents never smoked either, yet has it?
'Your lungs aren't fully formed until you're 25. People are killing their children with second hand smoke.Oh, wow! Nice hyperbole there. Who is responsible for this woman's appearance in the 'Fail', anyway?
'They know absolutely and categorically - the evidence is out there - that they're killing their children.
'One cigarette in your car, even with the window down, is like forcing a child to spend an evening in a nightclub full of smokers.'
Would you believe...
Lynda is now backing a campaign by the British Lung Foundation to ban smoking in cars where passengers are under 18.Of course she is. Of course they are...
"Your lungs aren't fully formed until you're 25"
ReplyDeleteReally? I'd love to see a source for this because it sounds ludicrous. I googled with a variety of search terms to try to find something else to support this claim and got zip.
"One cigarette in your car, even with the window down, is like forcing a child to spend an evening in a nightclub full of smokers."
Or to put it another way, if you forced your child to spend all evening in a nightclub full of smokers (assuming you first travel somewhere that hasn't made all the nightclubs ban smoking) it'll do them no more harm than if you have a Silk Cut while you're driving with the window down.
I feel very sorry for her, but I think she's being made a martyr and given all sorts of claims to parrot for the media. If I'd been given a death sentence I might not examine them too critically either, but that doesn't make them any more credible.
My mother never smoked. My father always has. Both are still alive and Ma has no respiratory problems. Funnily enough, neither does Pa.
ReplyDeleteNeither do I, and neither do my brother - both brought up in a smoking household and both smokers.
So that's four case studies to the British Lung foundation's one. And that's without even going to the rest of the family.
Well, my Dad smoked around me all the time when I was little. That was in the 70s.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm proof that secondhand smoke hurts kids, especially as I died in 1993.
Oh, hang on, no I didn't...
If all children whose parents smoked had ill effects then it would prove passive smoking causes health problems.
ReplyDeleteObviously this is not true.
However can we agree that if children who passive smoke have more health problems it would agree that would indicate passive smoking could be harmful?
Of course they wont be happy until they've demonised parents who smoke at all.
ReplyDeleteFive years ago I was working in Glasgow and the NHS had us print up a huge number of quit smoking packs. These included three certificates. Gold, Silver and Bronze.
Gold - gave up smoking completely
Silver - pledged to not smoke in the house or car, smoke outside only
Bronze - Don't smoke in front of the kids, and only smoke in one room, normally the kitchen.
If that was five years ago, what are they up to now I wonder...
"The quit kit does not contain any medication, but you can get this medication for free"
That'll be that ringfenced budget then. They're making us pay for window stickers on the NHS, never forget that.
Hopefully she'll die before she does any real damage
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for her, I really do, but what happened when she left home? It says she was a factory worker. What kind of factory was it? Perhaps that had more to do with her developing (further) problems with her lungs. No one's suggesting banning factory work.
ReplyDelete"Really? I'd love to see a source for this because it sounds ludicrous."
ReplyDeleteThat seems to be the problem these days. The MSM will print any ludicrous old twaddle from a Quango or fake charity, never worrying about whether it's utter rubbish or not.
"I feel very sorry for her, but I think she's being made a martyr and given all sorts of claims to parrot for the media. "
Me too.
"So that's four case studies to the British Lung foundation's one."
Sounds like a lot of us should be dead already!
"However can we agree that if children who passive smoke have more health problems it would agree that would indicate passive smoking could be harmful?"
Yet comments here indicate that that's not the case for all children. So, the answer probably lies elsewhere.
"That'll be that ringfenced budget then. They're making us pay for window stickers on the NHS, never forget that."
ReplyDeleteIt's about time this sort of thing was seperated out from the general NHS budget, so we could really see what we are paying for...
"What kind of factory was it? Perhaps that had more to do with her developing (further) problems with her lungs. "
Could be. It's a little suspicious that nothing is said about it.
"One cigarette in your car, even with the window down, is like forcing a child to spend an evening in a nightclub full of smokers."
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as someone who lived with a very socially-active family as a nipper, this is precisely what I experienced for some years, probably at least once a week. (Not to mention living with four adults who all smoked.) Of course, in those days, one visit to the cinema would expose you to more smoke than most kids will get in a lifetime these days.
"...campaign by the British Lung Foundation to ban smoking in cars..."
ReplyDeleteDidn't we just vote to get rid of all this shit, or did these drones not notice that?
If the British Lung Foundation's not a fake charity I'll be amazed.
Come on George, here's another few £mil you could save.
Lived my formative years in a household where both Mum and Dad smoked, in-doors and in the car. Started smoking when I was a teenager and still smoke today (now 62 years old.
ReplyDeletePisses off the medical fraternity that my lungs, heart, liver and other essential organs are all operating perfectly, without any signs of impending doom.
This girl must be being paid to come up with this shite.
"Didn't we just vote to get rid of all this shit, or did these drones not notice that? "
ReplyDeleteIt's like smoothing bubbles out of wallpaper - as soon as you've done one sheet, they are popping up in another.
Time to give up and plaster and paint instead?
"This girl must be being paid to come up with this shite."
I doubt they'd get away with that. I expect she's been cleverly manipulated by some very, very unscrupulous people in that charity though...