On a correlated health question, if the risks of smoking dont really become drastic until 20 pack-years, does that mean that smoking maybe 1 or 2 cigarettes per day is relatively harmless?
I’m a smoker (about 3 packs a week). If I had to, (for some insane game show, for example) I could probably smoke 10 cigarettes in an hour. To smoke a carton in one day would require giving up food and sleep (the cigarettes would help with that, I suppose).
I think that a hard-core smoker could probably do this ill-advised feat in a 24-hour period… once.
I’m reminded of old Red, the custodial supervisor at my father’s company in North Hollywood.
Red was never seen without a lit cigarette in his mouth. He was frequently seen lighting a new smoke with the butt of the old. Pall Mall unfiltered, as well.
I cornered him one day and asked him how much he smoked and how long he had been doing it.
“Been smoking since I was 10,” he croaked. “Figgur I smoke between 6-8 packs a day. Hasn’t hurt me yet.”
He passed away in 2004, at age 96. As far as I know, he never quit.
Great. By my calculations, I hit 20 pack years roughly just now. I started smoking half a pack per day around age 15, and gradually worked up to the 1.5 per day I’m at now, at 35.
You just PERFECTLY described my first cousin’s grandfather to the absolute T. He also chainsmoked unfiltered Pall Malls since age ten, and lived to 96.
Spooky.
Unfortunately, “Papaw” was on his mother’s side.
Unlrelated magic trick:
I can wake up in the morning, after a full 8 hours of sleep, pinch my lips closed, and use my diaphram to “try” to exhale, putting pressure on my cheeks.
When I release, there’s a puff of smoke.
I can also do this several times in a row after a full day of smoking.
Am I really releasing cigarette smoke when I do that?
King Zog of Albania was a smoker.
He loved the perfumed sort and was believed to smoke around 150 each day.
I guess if he was a bit stressed he could have gone for the extra 50 
Since I had a nonsmoking friend who used to do that as a party trick (and to annoy us smokers - he’d do a friggin’ mime act and end with the invisible cigarette), I’m going to guess no, it’s not smoke. I’ve never been sure how he did it, but my guess is it has something to do with water vapor and pressure.
Yeah, I figured as much… any other non-smoker want to give it a shot?
Still though, “water vapor and pressure” is such a simple explanation… I guess that the humidity in our lungs is already 99.9%, and that’s why a relatively slight pressure increase can condense the vapors.
From that “great site”:
“Most nursing homes from which a patient was denied acceptance in one hospitalization: 65: Chris Wu, R1: 12/04”
I’m guessing this particular patient had undiagnosed mental problems, refused inpatient psychiatric care, and therefore was refused by the “nursing homes”.
Still, though. Wow. Somebody surely along the line fucked up there, right?
Perhaps it takes you a lot longer than that. 3-5 minutes is normal for me.
Which reminded me of Pinetop Perkins, a blues pianist. I met him a few years ago. He told me he’s been smoking since he was six. Until he got a job at 12 years of age he would scrounge cigarettes, but once he had an income he smoked at least 2 packs a day. When I met him he was 94. Excellent overall health, and a lover of vanilla ice cream.
I was taught to do that in 6th grade before I ever smoked a one. It is something with water vapor and pressure.
I saw an article quite a few years back about a guy from Taiwan or something. On a bet, he got into a box and smoked like 20 cigarettes at once (no, I’m not kidding). He died of nicotine poisoning. I’ll see if I can find that article somewhere.
It’s not the best cite, but I finally found something. And not exactly as I remembered it, but close:
http://www.prn2.usm.my/mainsite/bulletin/sun/1997/sun4.html
Under the China and East Asia heading.
My maternal grandfather would leave a cigarette burning in an ashtray in one room, and light up another one in another room. He worked from home, and the only room he didn’t smoke in was the bedroom, because he was afraid he’d fall asleep and leave one burning and set the house on fire.
He died in his 70s, not from lung cancer, but from emphysema and other lung diseases. It was not a pretty death.
Small hijack for QtM or other docs – when my 18-month old son was admitted to the hospital, he had a Hemoglobin of 2.3 – I know this is low, but none of the docs would say just how low. I take it that level is pretty bad?
Yes, that’s pretty bad. It should be at least 11 at that age.
I don’t know how anyone can smoke a full cigarette in 3 minutes. Mine last about 7-8 minutes and they’re the short ones.
Since we’re on the subject of cigarettes, why is it that if I go 8 hours without a cigarette during the day, I’ll experience major withdrawal symptoms, yet when I first wake up in the morning after 8 hours of sleep, I don’t crave cigarettes any more than I did when I smoked my last cigarette the night before? I smoke about a pack a day, but I typically wait until I’m driving to work before I light my first one. Does nicotine stay in the body longer during sleep?
You’re dreaming about smoking - that takes the edge off. 
On the other hand, I just had a case of a 38-year-old man who came into the ER complaining of leg pain and was found to have a venous thrombosis. During the workup for the cause of this problem, a malignant lung tumor was discovered.
He is a smoker, but with nowhere remotely near the lifetime exposure of your blues pianist.