Smokers' Hope

Every smoker knows they face an increased risk for serious health problems from cigarettes and cigars. We know smoking causes heart disease, lung cancer and emphysema. None of this is earth-shattering news.

As smokers, though, we learn to effectively ignore the particulars about smoking-related disease. We gloss over, tune out and otherwise distract ourselves whenever possible. Looking too closely can cause a head-on collision with realities of the damage we're inflicting on our bodies and turns smoking 'enjoyment' into a guilty, fearful experience.

All smokers harbor the secret hope that they will be spared the disease and death that follows nicotine addiction. We tell ourselves we'll quit in time and somehow dodge the bullet that smoking is.

But with four million people dying every year due to tobacco use around the world, the odds aren't in our favor. Put another way, a smoking-related death occurs somewhere in the world every eight seconds, 365 days a year.

The sooner we remove the blinders and look carefully at nicotine addiction and the damage it causes, the sooner we can begin pulling away from the lies.