Number of Thai smokers up 21% despite 50,000 deaths last year

[Capt Rob]

I'm a smoker and probably will never quit. Learned to smoke at 13 in Switzerland many years ago. I was in a bar together with a bunch of schoolfriends (my age tells you how many years ago!) when a pretty girl hired by "Cool" cigarettes came around offering free cigarettes to anyone that would take them... I fell hook, line and sinker! If you've got twenty minutes here's a link you may want to watch. It's humorous but deadly serious. John Oliver is trying to show what a disgusting bunch of criminals the cigarette "Barons" are. Hope the link works.

https://youtu.be/6UsHHOCH4q8

PeCeDe the link works admirably! ( Recomend it to all ) A humorous look at a very serious issue and well worth the time to watch it - needs to be added to FB pages.

Hope yo manage to kick or at least reduce your dependence on the dreaded 'weed'. Just lost a couple of mates to this drug and the visual spectacle is very distressing. Good luck with your quest to give up - a lot of us made it out to the other side.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Capt Rob

[Minnehaha]

I love cigars.

And I love cigar boxes almost as much. They are classic in design, well made, perfect for storage, and stylish. Great for a kid. The old ones used to be made of better quality wood, but even today they are well made.

And about 5 years ago they started putting those goddamn stickers all over them. They are impossible to remove. Now I don't like the boxes so much.

[Godders]

Number of Thai smokers up 21% despite 50,000 deaths last year

The solution is simple: ban the sale of cigarettes which contain nicotine, the drug as addictive as heroin which hooks smokers on the destructive tobacco habit. The manufacturers, distributors and pushers of these aptly-named coffin nails should be prosecuted for manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm and their assets and profits seized and used to compensate millions smoker victims and their families.

Will it happen? Of course not. No politician who relies on corporate funding to get elected is going to propose the only ethical way of solving this problem and the egregious lobbying system will ensure that the giant tobacco companies continue to grow fat at the cost of millions of wrecked lives. It's just more proof, if it were needed, that the rich and powerful can get away with murder - outrageously, with the connivance of those we vote into power to protect us...

Edited June 1, 2015 by Godders

[Shiver]

I was a smoker for over 30 years and at the weekend could consume 2 packs per day. Have not had a cigarette for 8 months and do not intend to revert to smoking. Do I feel better as a result,? cleaner mouth in the mornings and that is about all.

So much emotion is put into cigarette pollution that it is rather lame as are those who complain profusely about smokers polluting their air.

For those living in Bangkok you have far more to worry about than cigarette pollution. Taxi's, buses lorry's ,vans, trucks and cars are poisoning the air daily.

Go down the Eastern Seaboard and look at the control on industrial emissions air, water and soil. Almost non existent.

And then my pet hate in this country Noise pollution from every perceivable area. It is truly shocking, stressful and in the most part totally unnecessary yet it is rampant in every aspect of Thai Life.

Happiness to the people, make a lot of noise so that they cant think.

I couldn't have put it better myself. Agree completely.

[Broeno]

The logic behind smoking is strange and crazy.

Smoking people are paying money to buy something and pretend to enjoy it, to destruct their health.

Isn't there enough air pollution??

people drink alcohol....paying money enjoy it and destruct their health

people watch TV...paying money enjoy it and loose their time

It is human....

Yes but I don't think the fumes off a television effects other peoples health?

And the car your driving. Polution of factorys that produce also for you etc etc.

[Broeno]

I can drink alcohol as much as i want. I can polute with my car as much as i want. I can eat food with chemicals as much as i want. I can stress as much as i want.

So where is all the hypocrisy all about.

Societety always needs a witch hunt. Hunt whatever you want. Just dont bother me with it.

[fred Kubasa]

1). I don't believe that 50,000 die each year from smoking ! These exaggerated figures are produced:

A). For the continued benefit of those in the medical profession and

. So the authorities can justify the outrageous taxes on tobacco

Nothing is said about the global leading cause of many illnesses and premature death - obesity &

little is done about it as being fat can't, yet, be taxed. How about those idling delivery trucks

with 3 inch diameter exhaust pipes belching out more pollutants in one hour then all smokers

combined, in a year.

Smokers/tobacco are simply convenient to taxing bodies and Doctors answers for anything they cannot

properly diagnose. Personally I believe after doing so for 66 years, that smoking is not good for

you, becoming more expensive and annoying to everyone else but not near the EVIL depicted !

That being said, smokers excess taxes,( various estimates place this figure at over $ 100 Billion US dollars a year ! )

have paid for many, many progressive changes, a lot of college scholarships and tobacco probably employs more workers

then any other single industry in the world.

The Defense Rests !

[arrowsdawdle]

good to see the price hike and warnings on packaging is working a treat

You have to keep in mind that Thai tobacco is different, like Thai electricity. Besides, they have amulets to protect them.

[PeCeDe]

I'm a smoker and probably will never quit. Learned to smoke at 13 in Switzerland many years ago. I was in a bar together with a bunch of schoolfriends (my age tells you how many years ago!) when a pretty girl hired by "Cool" cigarettes came around offering free cigarettes to anyone that would take them... I fell hook, line and sinker! If you've got twenty minutes here's a link you may want to watch. It's humorous but deadly serious. John Oliver is trying to show what a disgusting bunch of criminals the cigarette "Barons" are. Hope the link works.

https://youtu.be/6UsHHOCH4q8

PeCeDe the link works admirably! ( Recomend it to all ) A humorous look at a very serious issue and well worth the time to watch it - needs to be added to FB pages.

Hope yo manage to kick or at least reduce your dependence on the dreaded 'weed'. Just lost a couple of mates to this drug and the visual spectacle is very distressing. Good luck with your quest to give up - a lot of us made it out to the other side.

Thanks Capt. Rob... Had to stop alcohol first.. If you compare the two addictions, alcohol is far worse, not only can you kill yourself but more importantly you can wipe out entire innocent families in an instant!. Which is worse? There's no choice.

[PeCeDe]

The logic behind smoking is strange and crazy.

Smoking people are paying money to buy something and pretend to enjoy it, to destruct their health.

Isn't there enough air pollution??

people drink alcohol....paying money enjoy it and destruct their health

people watch TV...paying money enjoy it and loose their time

It is human....

Yes but I don't think the fumes off a television effects other peoples health?

And the car your driving. Polution of factorys that produce also for you etc etc.

As I sit on my balcony (having a smoke ) I can see three major fires polluting the atmosphere with mega smoke from farmers clearing their fields and burning who knows what! I'm in the Bangkok burbs, and the smoke is headed right downtown. Maybe that should become the "clean living peoples" clarion call not a little cigarette.

Edited June 1, 2015 by PeCeDe

[Radar501]

People complain that shops sell cigarettes in 3,4,5s but there is the theory that by buying in smaller numbers means you smoke less compared to buying in packs of 20's

The counter-argument to this wonderful theory is that some battler who doesn't have enough money for a full pack can still get his hands on ciggies if he has just a few baht in his pocket.

[thesetat2013]

The logic behind smoking is strange and crazy.

Smoking people are paying money to buy something and pretend to enjoy it, to destruct their health.

Isn't there enough air pollution??

yes there is! A lot of it is coming from your mouth. Non-smokers always DON't understand smokers and LIKE YOU! Shoot there mouths off about it stating stupid facts using uninformed or misguided logic. You could not possibly know if a smoker enjoys it or not. It is an addictive drug just like cocaine or heroine. It stimulates a person so your blinded views are irrelevant.

[PeCeDe]

The logic behind smoking is strange and crazy.

Smoking people are paying money to buy something and pretend to enjoy it, to destruct their health.

Isn't there enough air pollution??

yes there is! A lot of it is coming from your mouth. Non-smokers always DON't understand smokers and LIKE YOU! Shoot there mouths off about it stating stupid facts using uninformed or misguided logic. You could not possibly know if a smoker enjoys it or not. It is an addictive drug just like cocaine or heroine. It stimulates a person so your blinded views are irrelevant.

Nicely said but you missed the most important word... "Sanctimonious!"

[eliotness]

The logic behind smoking is strange and crazy.

Smoking people are paying money to buy something and pretend to enjoy it, to destruct their health.

Isn't there enough air pollution??

people drink alcohol....paying money enjoy it and destruct their health

people watch TV...paying money enjoy it and loose their time

It is human....

Yes but I don't think the fumes off a television effects other peoples health?

But do you own a car, is it a diesel, do you know that the particulates from diesel fumes are as toxic, if not more, than secondhand smoke ? At least in towns and cities you can get away from smokers, but traffic fumes are everywhere

[aussiandrew]

The tobacco company's are working hard to increase the consumption of cigarettes in Asia as the first world nations are reducing sales of cigarettes. I don't smoke, so in order to avoid the horrible stinky smell while dinning out we try to dine out earlier before the smokers come out. It does not always work and not point getting angry sometimes you just can't win.

[sharpjwe]

I am happy the smokers die , but would like them to die faster,

while you are dying please do not throw your cigarettes all over the earth.

99 % of you are lying hypocrites and never admit of doing so .

yet the planet is fully littered with your shit.

Die in peace it is your choice .

[Thian]

I don't understand the irregulartites in this report. I can understand if they said cigarette sales were up 21% this year, but not that they can tell me that 21% more people smoke this year. Also, in the same article they say the Top Award went to the group of gentlemen that have written new anti-smoking laws! It would seem that whatever they did, it was to increase smoking, not eliminate it. This is like the sales team that declined the most in dollar volume last year receives the top award for sales. Make no sense to me. No need to answer with Thai bashing please. I am just trying to understand the article.

Maybe the chinese bring loads of (taxfree) cigarettes back to china?

[Fiddlesticks]

Of course Thai smokers are not worried about dying from smoking! They know they will likely be killed on the highways long before they get ill from smoking.

[schvonsky1]

The logic behind smoking is strange and crazy.

Smoking people are paying money to buy something and pretend to enjoy it, to destruct their health.

Isn't there enough air pollution??

So True I cannot understand why folk want to harm there health daily especially the young people just to make them look good that's what they think is so so crazy

[hawksway]

Talk is cheap but what is the Health Ministry doing to persuade these highly impressionable people to give up?

No anti smoking campaigns on TV, Newspapers, road side advertising boards. No promotions or NPHS walk in clinics to give advice and nicotine patches.

It's worked well in the Developed World but here it's pitiful to walk through Hospital Wards.

[hawksway]

And when I go for street food and see the cook standing over the Wok with a fag hanging out of his mouth - Pad Thai with smoked prawns - what a turn off!

[Tonawatchee]

Death be damned, we're gonna look Cool.

[MW72]

I am continually surprised by the number of people who profess to really want to quit smoking but don't know how to. When it comes to reality, do they REALLY want to give up? There is an absolutely certain way to give up smoking seriously, if genuine? That is Zyban which should be taken under medical advice, but is is certain and immediate. Just how serious are people about actually giving up?

I was going to write a long winded reply about how Zyban or Champix are not absolutely certain or or long lasting ways to give up smoking but I can't be bothered. I'm off for a ciggie.

[MW72]

The logic behind smoking is strange and crazy.

Smoking people are paying money to buy something and pretend to enjoy it, to destruct their health.

Isn't there enough air pollution??

The logic isn't crazy. Like other drugs, nicotine gives you a high which is enjoyable. Addictions and habits are then formed which are hard to kick. I'm off for a smoke now and believe me I am going to enjoy it. No need to pretend.

[pach16]

I am happy i smoke tobacco its my choice not anyone else,if you drive or walk across a road maybe you die maybe no die.but every one die ,do fitness every day you die healthier that others,that is life.

[nisakiman]

I am continually surprised by the number of people who profess to really want to quit smoking but don't know how to. When it comes to reality, do they REALLY want to give up? There is an absolutely certain way to give up smoking seriously, if genuine? That is Zyban which should be taken under medical advice, but is is certain and immediate. Just how serious are people about actually giving up?

Google 'Zyban, Chantix, side effects'.

[nisakiman]

The Asian COUNTRYS on each other's borders have to get together, they have to increase the tax like the West so the young Thais and young people in all the Asian COUNTRYS just cannot afford to buy fags, that's it. They can buy a pack for less than 40baht, Phillapines less. My wife has little shop here in KHon KAEN and she sells fags in little pack of 3,3,4 & 5's.

The governments need to hike the tax for a packet to cost around 3-400 baht and use the tax to vastly improve the medical facility's for it's people. But unfortunately we would see a lot of the money shimmed off in the corruption game.

That's what is known as a 'regressive tax', insofar as it is a tax which falls disproportionately on the poorest in society. All it achieves is to boost the black market, as is already the case in those countries which levy punitive taxes on tobacco. In the UK and Australia, the black markets for tobacco are massive, and if they continue to hike the taxes the way they have been, illegal sales of tobacco will soon outstrip legal sales.

So you won't see any great increase in government take from tobacco taxes anytime soon, shaurene. If anything, they are set to drop, as tobacco consumption increases. It's called 'The Laffer Curve'. Google it.

[nisakiman]

The logic behind smoking is strange and crazy.

Smoking people are paying money to buy something and pretend to enjoy it, to destruct their health.

Isn't there enough air pollution??

people drink alcohol....paying money enjoy it and destruct their health

people watch TV...paying money enjoy it and loose their time

It is human....

Yes but I don't think the fumes off a television effects other peoples health?

Nor does 'second-hand smoke'. That is a myth that was fabricated by the anti-smoking lobby to justify their demands for smoking bans everywhere. It was first mooted at an anti-tobacco conference back in the seventies, when Sir George Godber (a fanatical anti-smoker) suggested that the only way they would achieve their ends was to foster the perception that smokers were harming those around them. Thus the plans were laid. See 'The Godber Blueprint'.

"In his thorough review of the various World Conferences on Smoking and Health, Di Pierri identifies what he calls the 'Godber blueprint' which anti-smoking activists have been following ever since. The blueprint encompasses the denormalisation of smoking and the criminalisation of smoking everywhere outside the home. Even today, most anti-smoking groups would not publicly call for such a draconian approach and yet, as Di Pierri shows, Godber was advocating these hard-line policies as far back as 1975 - and his peers were agreeing with him."

So research was designed to deliver the 'right' results. The two biggest and most thorough studies (Enstrom and Kabat, conducted over four decades, and the WHO study, with hundreds of thousands of subjects conducted over about seven years) didn't come up with the 'right' result, so despite having been the best and most thorough studies, they were buried. Well, they sent 'the wrong message', didn't they? They found that there was absolutely no significant harm from being exposed to tobacco smoke, even in a spousal situation, ie all day and every day. The WHO study did actually come up with one statistically significant finding though, and quite a strong one. That was that children who grew up in a smoker's home and were exposed to 'second-hand smoke' on a daily basis benefited from a protective effect, and were much less likely in later life to suffer respiratory disease and lung cancer. Oh boy! Bury that one really deep! We can't allow people to read stuff like that!

And here's another one:

http://www.pnlee.co.uk/documents/refs/lee2010B.pdf

In fact, if you actually do some proper research into the subject, you won't find any study that proves harm from SHS. They utilise cherry-picked data, and then exaggerate it. That's how Tobacco Control works. They lie.

[nisakiman]

only 50.000 ?

why not start : if you are a smoker, no free health care ...

And what about the massive amount of taxes that smokers pay?

Here's an interesting fact. Lifetime healthcare costs are highest for non-smokers, followed by the obese, followed by smokers. I don't have the link to hand, but from memory lifetime healthcare costs for a non-smoker average about $280,000, and for smokers about $220,000, with the obese coming somewhere in-between. And those figures don't take any account of the taxes smokers pay.

[nisakiman]

STATISTICS released on World No Tobacco Day revealed 50,000 people die each year due to smoking

And are there 50,000 death certificates which specify cause of death as 'smoking'?

No. There are not. And the reason there are no death certificates is because those 'smoking related deaths' are in fact 'virtual deaths' that have been spat out by SAMMEC, a modelling program designed to 'estimate' how many people die of 'smoking related disease' (these days, ingrown toenails are 'smoking related', along with just about everything else). And as computer programmers like to say, "GIGO" (Garbage In, Garbage Out). It's propaganda, pure and simple. Designed to scare.

http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/1998/10/lies.pdf