# How could anyone have ever thought smoking wasn't bad for you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 31, 2014, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607 "2014-12-31T12:47:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/1 "2014-12-31T12:47:11Z")
Lets sidestep the cancer decades down the line issue, since it is mostly beside my point. I can’t understand how anyone could have ever thought smoking tobacco or marijuana was not unhealthy or even good for you. I used to be an occasional smoker and one or two(spread out) cigarettes a day for me personally were imperceptible to not smoking that day. But exceed this amount and actual lung pain, reduced lung capacity, reduced capability for physical exertion all became noticeable. Lower quality marijuana feels so bad on your lungs it can be hard to inhale. I mean how can someone think something that makes your lungs HURT isn’t unhealthy? ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/2 "2014-12-31T12:50:56Z")
Doctors used to tell people it was “good for their nerves” apparently. Some medical treatments are painful, but ultimately of benefit, so maybe that’s why people believed it. Exercise can be painful, but it isn’t necessarily bad for you. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyUseless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/3 "2014-12-31T12:53:22Z")
It is seriously inconceivable that people don’t know something AFTER everyone knows it. Of course, bacteria causes disease, uh, except for hundreds of years that wasn’t so obvious. Everything is obvious after the fact. People have always been just as smart or stupid then as they are today; it is the knowledge base that has dramatically increased. The first guy to eat toadstools and die wasn’t stupid. The ones much later after it was known that they were poisonous were stupid. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/4 "2014-12-31T13:05:22Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Lets sidestep the cancer decades down the line issue, since it is mostly beside my point. > > I can’t understand how anyone could have ever thought smoking tobacco or marijuana was not unhealthy or even good for you. > > I used to be an occasional smoker and one or two(spread out) cigarettes a day for me personally were imperceptible to not smoking that day. But exceed this amount and actual lung pain, reduced lung capacity, reduced capability for physical exertion all became noticeable. Lower quality marijuana feels so bad on your lungs it can be hard to inhale. > > I mean how can someone think something that makes your lungs HURT isn’t unhealthy? Willow bark tastes nasty and gives you a stomach ache. That doesn’t mean it is bad for you. The perceived benefits of the smoke outweighed the irritations of the delivery system. Besides, “you can feel it working”. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/5 "2014-12-31T13:15:17Z")
> [@grude](#): > > How could anyone have ever thought smoking wasn’t bad for you? Decades from now there will be a post titled: **How could anyone have ever thought that a lifetime of addiction to nicotine from e-cigs was harmless?** We’re good at fooling ourselves. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/6 "2014-12-31T13:17:46Z")
For a time, people even made _medicated cigarettes_, adding stuff they thought would help your asthma or whatever, in the belief that smoking the cigarettes would get the stuff into your lungs. Here’s an image: > **[medicated cigarettes – ELYSIANHUNTER, ALWAYS INCITEFUL:](https://elysianhunter.com/tag/medicated-cigarettes/)** > > Posts about medicated cigarettes written by Tonya Lanthron There seems to be even less evidence that you could have a positive impact on your health with cigarettes than that you can poison someone with cigarettes (the topic of a thread of mine from a month or so ago), and the idea disappeared. Although apparently some people still have medicated cigarette in Ayurvedic Medicine: > **[HERBAL SMOKING - HERBAL SMOKING at MADANAPALAS.COM](https://www.madanapalas.com/herbal-smoking-c-200.html)** > > HERBAL SMOKING from India direct. Dhooma is the Ayurvedic term for medicated smoking therapy. Fragrant healing herbs are combined as per ancient texts to prepare herbal cigarettes which have immense life enhancing properties unlike the modern concept... ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/7 "2014-12-31T13:21:17Z")
I think what I would liken it to is alcohol, drink a certain amount of alcohol and it feels"toxic" in the sense that it is actually harming your body. (not to mention how purer liquor burns the hell out of mucus membranes). Observing some alcoholics would show you the physical effects of long term exposure to high levels. Like I said I expected no one to know instinctively this causes cancer, but they had to know it wasn’t healthy. Excess exercise is bad for you, it can cause joint damage etc. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/8 "2014-12-31T13:31:56Z")
I always wondered how anyone could think inhaling smoke, over and over, could not be bad for you. But, way back when, everyone did it and they didn’t look sick, they looked cool. Sure, old people who smoked were dying and they looked pretty nasty before that happened but we never saw those people. Beautiful movie stars smoked. Magazine ads showed doctors smoking. I think everyone kinda knew it wasn’t a good idea but more like how we knew eating too much fat is bad. It is easy to ignore bad effects that take years to show themselves. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyUseless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/9 "2014-12-31T13:36:16Z")
In all reality, in times past, it was thought healthy to be fat. It was a sign of health, vigor and prosperity. Everything is obvious after it is known. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/10 "2014-12-31T14:01:03Z")
Right now I’m typing on a laptop that’s literally on my lap. Five years from now, we may learn that these gizmos actually do release enough radiation to be harmful and that we’ve been lied to all these years. And I’ll go “doh” and feel really stupid, since I chose to ignore my gut instinct all this time. I think there must be something evolutionarily embedded in our psyches that causes us to assume the things our parents do are automatically safe. I still occasionally hear smokers citing their long-lived smoking parents as evidence it can’t be all THAT bad. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/11 "2014-12-31T14:16:00Z")
For most of us, smoking isn’t painful at all. There is a minor nausea associated with the first few cigarettes you smoke in your life, then you adjust to that. After that, it seems like pure pleasure. I haven’t smoked in nearly 50 years. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/12 "2014-12-31T14:25:23Z")
Way back when it started, people called it “drinking” tobacco. Nobody smoked anything, so there wasn’t a term for it. And right from the beginning, people were condemning it as unhealthy. It’s not as if everyone, or even a majority, thought this was undoubtedly a good thing. James I wrote his **Counterblaste to Tobacco** in 1604: > [@](#): > > A Counterblaste to Tobacco > > That the manifolde abuses of this vile custome of Tobacco taking, may the better be espied, it is fit, that first you enter into consideration both of the first originall thereof, and likewise of the reasons of the first entry thereof into this Countrey. For certainely as such customes, that have their first institution either from a godly, necessary, or honorable ground, and are first brought in, by the meanes of some worthy, vertuous, and great Personage, are ever, and most justly, holden in great and reverent estimation and account, by all wise, vertuous, and temperate spirits: So should it by the contrary, justly bring a great disgrace into that sort of customes, which having their originall from base corruption and barbarity, doe in like sort, make their first entry into a Countrey, by an inconsiderate and childish affectation of Noveltie, as is the true case of the first invention of Tobacco taking, and of the first entry thereof among us. For Tobacco being a common herbe, which (though under divers names) growes almost every where, was first found out by some of the barbarous Indians, to be a Preservative, or Antidot against the Pockes, a filthy disease, whereunto these barbarous people are (as all men know) very much subject, what through the uncleanly and adust constitution of their bodies, and what through the intemperate heate of their Climat: so that as from them was first brought into Christendome, that most detestable disease, so from them likewise was brought this use of Tobacco, as a stinking and unsavorie Antidot, for so corrupted and execrable a Maladie, the stinking Suffumigation whereof they yet use against that disease, making so one canker or venime to eate out another. It goes on for quite a bit after that: [http://www.laits.utexas.edu/poltheory/james/blaste/blaste.html](http://www.laits.utexas.edu/poltheory/james/blaste/blaste.html) > **[A Counterblaste to Tobacco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Counterblaste_to_Tobacco)** > > A Counterblaste to Tobacco is a treatise written by King James VI and I in 1604. In it he expresses his distaste for tobacco and tobacco-smoking. It is one of the earliest anti-smoking publications. > It is written in Early Modern English and refers to medical theories of the time (e.g. the four humours). In it James blames the Native Americans for bringing tobacco to Europe, complains about passive smoking, warns of dangers to the lungs, and decries tobacco's odour as "hatefull to the nose." > J... He then passed a law against it: > [@](#): > > JAMES, by the Grace of God &c. to our right Trustie and right Welbeloved Cousen and Counsellor, Thomas Earle of Dorset our High Treasourer of Englande, Greetinge. > > Whereas Tabacco being a Drugge of late Yeres found out, and by Merchants, as well Denizens as Strangers, brought from forreign Partes in small quantitie into this Realm of England and other our Dominions, was used and taken by the better sort both then and nowe onelye as Phisicke to preserve Healthe, and is now at this Day, through evell Custome and the Toleration thereof, excessivelie taken by a nomber of ryotous and disordered Persons of meane and base Condition, whoe, contrarie to the use which Persons of good Callinge and Qualitye make thereof, doe spend most of there tyme in that idle Vanitie, to the evill example and corrupting of others, and also do consume that Wages whiche manye of them gett by theire Labour, and wherewith there Families should be releived, not caring at what Price they buye that Drugge, but rather devisinge how to add to it other Mixture, therebye to make it the more delightfull to their Taste, though so much the more costly to there Purse; by which great and imoderate takinge of Tabacco the Health of a great nomber of our People is impayred, and theire Bodies weakened and made unfit for Labor, the Estates of many mean Persons soe decayed and consumed as they are thereby dryven to unthriftie Shifts onelie to maynteyne their gluttonous exercise thereof, besides that also a great part of the Treasure of our Lande is spent and exhausted by this onely Drugge so licentiously abused by the meaner sorte, all which enormous Inconveniences ensuinge thereuppon We doe well perceave to proceed principally from the great quantitie of Tabacco daily brought into this our Realm of England and Dominions of Wales from the Partes beyond the Seas by Merchauntes and others, which Excesse We conceave might in great part be restrayned by some good Imposition to be laid uppon it, whereby it is likelie that a lesse Quantitie of Tabacco will hereafter be broughte into this our Realm of Englaud, Dominion of Wales and Town of Barwick then in former tymes, and yet sufficient store to serve for their necessarie use who are of the better sort, and have and will use the same with Moderation to preserve their Healthe; > > We do therefore will and command you our Treasurer of Englande, and herebye also warrant and aucthorise you to geve order to all Customers Comptrollers Searchers Surveyors, and all other Officers of our Portes, that, from and after the sixe and twentith Day of October next comynge, they shall demaunde and take to our use of all Merchauntes, as well Englishe as Strangers, and of all others whoe shall bringe in anye Tabacco into this Realme, within any Porte Haven or Creek belonging to any theire severall Charges, the Somme of Six Shillinges and eighte Pence uppon everye Pound Waight thereof, over and above the Custome of Twoo Pence uppon the Pounde Waighte usuallye paide heretofore; > > And for the better execution hereof, bothe in the Reformation of the saide Abuses, and for the avoydinge of all Fraude and Deceipte concerninge the Paymente of the saide Imposition and Custome, Our Will and Pleasure is that you shall in our Name straightlye charge and commaunde all Collectors Customers Comptrollers Surveyors, and other Officers whatsoever to whome the same maye belonge, that they suffer noe Entries to be made of anye Tabacco at anye tyme hereafter to be broughte into anye Porte Haven or Creeke within this our Realme of Englande, the Dominion of Wales, and Towne of Barwicke, or anye parte of the same, by anye Englishe or Stranger, or anye other Persone whatsoever, before the saide Custome aqd Imposition before specified be firste satisfied and paide, or Composition made for the same with oure saide Customers, Collectors, or other Officers to whome the enme apperteyneth, uppon Payne that if anye Merchaunte Englishe or Straunger, or other whatsoever, shall presume to bringe in anye of the saide Tabacco, before suche Payemente and Satisfactione firste made, That then he shall not onelie forfeite the saide Tabacco, but alsoe shall undergoe suche furthere Penalties and corporall Punishmente as the Qualitie of suche soe highe a Coutempte against our Royall and expresse Commaundemente in this mannere published shall deserve. > > Wytnes our self at Westminster the seaventeenth Day of October. [1604]. > > Per ipsum Regem. [http://www.laits.utexas.edu/poltheory/james/blaste/blaste.app.html](http://www.laits.utexas.edu/poltheory/james/blaste/blaste.app.html) There are lots of similar proclamations and laws in Europe from the same time. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/13 "2014-12-31T14:32:42Z")
taking this completely off-topic: > [@](#): > > A Counterblaste to Tobacco > > That the manifolde abuses of this vile custome of Tobacco taking, may the better be espied, it is fit, that first you enter into consideration both of the first originall thereof, and likewise of the reasons of the first entry thereof into this Countrey. For certainely as such customes, that have their first institution either from a godly, necessary, or honorable ground, and are first brought in, by the meanes of some worthy, vertuous, and great Personage, are ever, and most justly, holden in great and reverent estimation and account, by all wise, vertuous, and temperate spirits: So should it by the contrary, justly bring a great disgrace into that sort of customes, which having their originall from base corruption and barbarity, doe in like sort, make their first entry into a Countrey, by an inconsiderate and childish affectation of Noveltie, as is the true case of the first invention of Tobacco taking, and of the first entry thereof among us. For Tobacco being a common herbe, which (though under divers names) growes almost every where, was first found out by some of the barbarous Indians, to be a Preservative, or Antidot against the Pockes, a filthy disease, whereunto these barbarous people are (as all men know) very much subject, what through the uncleanly and adust constitution of their bodies, and what through the intemperate heate of their Climat: so that as from them was first brought into Christendome, that most detestable disease, so from them likewise was brought this use of Tobacco, as a stinking and unsavorie Antidot, for so corrupted and execrable a Maladie, the stinking Suffumigation whereof they yet use against that disease, making so one canker or venime to eate out another. anybody who bitches about kids using “txt spk” should be condemned to read stuff like the above. What a bunch of over-wrought, wordy bloviation. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/14 "2014-12-31T14:40:17Z")
Then I guess we are going to find that chili peppers are about the deadliest food there is. And it will make them even more popular. I’ve got to wonder how many things we eat that virtually no one likes the first time they try. With most things it happens so early in life we all have forgotten the initial dislike. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/15 "2014-12-31T15:09:28Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > Then I guess we are going to find that chili peppers are about the deadliest food there is. And it will make them even more popular. > > I’ve got to wonder how many things we eat that virtually no one likes the first time they try. With most things it happens so early in life we all have forgotten the initial dislike. the difference is that capsaicin doesn’t actually cause any tissue damage. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/16 "2014-12-31T15:44:33Z")
Following the reasoning of the OP. > [@grude](#): > > I mean how can someone think something that makes your lungs HURT isn’t unhealthy? ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/17 "2014-12-31T16:01:48Z")
One of the greatest scientists and statisticians of the last century, R. A. Fisher (take an introductory evolution, animal behavior or statistics class and his name will be ubiquitous) actually went to his grave denying vociferously that tobacco caused cancer. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/18 "2014-12-31T16:41:35Z")
Aw, I was going to quote King Jamie. Here’s a thought, though. We tend to forget that for thousands of years, people had fires and the accompanying smoke in their houses most of the day. Peasants barely had chimneys in a lot of places. Everybody had been marinating in smoke forever when tobacco arrived in Europe, and there were lots of folk beliefs about house smoke being good for you, keeping disease away, and so on. I wonder if that had something to do with it? ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/19 "2014-12-31T17:19:02Z")
There were certainly many people who argued that smoking was unhealthy a century ago or more. You can see many references to this in literature of the period. What’s less clear is whether anyone believed there were zero negative health effects from smoking or if people just felt that what were thought to be the positives (e.g. digestion, clarity of mind) outweighed the negatives. In our own times it’s known to scientists that smoking does have certain positive health effects (e.g. Parkinsons and UC, IIRC) but this tends to be supressed because the negative aspects far outweigh them and encouraging people to keep smoking is very much a net negative. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607/20 "2014-12-31T17:47:16Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > And right from the beginning, people were condemning it as unhealthy. Back then, though, it was thought that disease was transmitted by bad smells. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-could-anyone-have-ever-thought-smoking-wasnt-bad-for-you/708607.md?page=2)