(This thread is inspired by curiosity, not any particular occasion as, for example, my plans to get life insurance would be.)
I wouldn’t call myself a smoker. Occasionally, about half a dozen times a year, I go to an orient-themed bar with a couple of friends to share a water pipe (variously known as shisha, hookah or nargila). Apart from that and three cigars I’ve tried in my lifetime, I have never smoked at all.
Is that enough for me to be considered a “smoker”? Many contracts for life or health insurance ask clients to state if they are smokers or not, with different premiums to be paid by these categories. Given the imprtance of this distinction, you would suppose that there’s some sort of standard definition.
It will, of course, depend on the terms and conditions of the life insurer concerned. I believe that many will classify you as a smoker (on the lowest possible level) if you have ever smoked anything. Of course, the factual nature of this is very difficult to prove either way, so personally speaking (as someone who smokes about the same amount (or less) than you), I would probably declare myself a non-smoker on a life insurance application, particularly as I do not intend to ever smoke again. After all, they won’t be able to invalidate the contract by proving otherwise.
For financial products (such as annuities) where you can obtain a better rate by being a smoker, the normal criteria in the UK is smoking 10 manufactured cigarettes a day continuously for at least the last 10 years. Hand-rolled tobacco, cigars, and pipes may also count if equivalent amounts are smoked.
IAALife Insurance Agent, and I can safely say that you would probably not be considered a smoker for the purposes of writing a policy as far as my company is concerned. In fact, occasional cigar smokers are a market that we’re actively pursuing because most companies would give them smoker’s rates.
But different companies have different definitions of “smoker”. YMMV.
A good friend of mine quit dipping for a month before his life insurance policy physical. According to him, they did a nicotine test of his blood or urine to determine if he was a smoker or not.
The last time I filled out an insurance form, they included their definition of “smoker”. It was a single instance of tobacco consumption in any form in the last 12 months.
So one chaw, a single celebratory stogie, or one trip to the oriental-themed bar this year and you were a smoker in their eyes.
I’m not defending that definition, merely reporting it.
Wow, that’s a pretty strict definition. I’m a former smoker (smoke-free for ten years in less than a month!), and have not had a single instance of personal tobacco consumption since that day. However, I’d wager that my weekly trips to smoke-filled dance clubs cause me to inhale more smoke second-hand per year (and possibly more lung damage) than the OP’s getting through his first-hand consumption.
For my insurance policy, the criteron is more than 4 instances of tobacco use in the previous month. As a pack-a-year smoker, I easily escaped that category.
I have a friend who only smokes when he goes to Las Vegas, which is once or twice a year. We’ve gone there together many times, and it’s really strange seeing him light up. He says it’s a habit he got into when he first started going there, and he never has the urge to smoke anywhere else.