Did cigarettes distributed to WWII GIs kill more men than died in battle?

[older than dirt]

The thought is that the cigarets the army gave the men ww11 killed more men that died in battle.
Rather spooky thought . Safer to fight ww11 than to smoke LOL Go to the address for full story.


http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...died-in-battle

I then applied an estimate from an article entitled "What Are the Odds That Smoking Will Kill You?" (Mattson et al, American Journal of Public Health, April 1987): at age 35, the chances of a moderate smoker (fewer than 25 cigarettes a day) dying of a smoking-related disease by age 65 are 8.7 percent; for a former smoker, 4.2 percent. The youngest WWII vets today are past retirement age, so if Mattson and friends are right, smoking to date has killed at least 780,000. Total U.S. battle deaths during WWII: 292,131.

You realize that from the standpoint of statistical reliability, the preceding is about one jump ahead of a Ouija board and in all likelihood greatly understates the actual smoking-related death toll.

[Ohiorganic]

My dad was a WWII vet (Marines, Pacific theater-he was in most of the big battles where his company lost a lot of men) and he was a smoker who quit when he was around 60. He lived to be 83 and died of a non smoking related reason (probably, though smoking does effect all systems in the body so the belly cancer could have been first caused by tobacco use...or something else. No way to know)

What i was struck with were the number killed in WWI1/4 million soldiers. And we now complain when under 10K over a much longer time period die in wars. Amazing the tolerance for war death change in our culture.

[FAADAN]

Originally Posted by Ohiorganic

My dad was a WWII vet (Marines, Pacific theater-he was in most of the big battles where his company lost a lot of men) and he was a smoker who quit when he was around 60. He lived to be 83 and died of a non smoking related reason (probably, though smoking does effect all systems in the body so the belly cancer could have been first caused by tobacco use...or something else. No way to know)

What i was struck with were the number killed in WWI1/4 million soldiers. And we now complain when under 10K over a much longer time period die in wars. Amazing the tolerance for war death change in our culture.

You are right about that. 52,000 Americans died in Viet Nam alone.

[older than dirt]

http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm

List of all deaths on WW11 in all nations.
The world fought against a small group of nations that wanted to rule the world.
Now we have a UN with the same goal & different control method . Method is different untill the UN manages to get carbon tax as its tax on the world at which time it can buy its own military .
If UN gets the ability to tax the world they will have global control at that point. The next war will then be against the UN & that war will be really really ugly ,then the dark ages come.

[independentvoter]

Originally Posted by older than dirt

The thought is that the cigarets the army gave the men ww11 killed more men that died in battle.
Rather spooky thought . Safer to fight ww11 than to smoke LOL Go to the address for full story.


http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...died-in-battle

I then applied an estimate from an article entitled "What Are the Odds That Smoking Will Kill You?" (Mattson et al, American Journal of Public Health, April 1987): at age 35, the chances of a moderate smoker (fewer than 25 cigarettes a day) dying of a smoking-related disease by age 65 are 8.7 percent; for a former smoker, 4.2 percent. The youngest WWII vets today are past retirement age, so if Mattson and friends are right, smoking to date has killed at least 780,000. Total U.S. battle deaths during WWII: 292,131.

You realize that from the standpoint of statistical reliability, the preceding is about one jump ahead of a Ouija board and in all likelihood greatly understates the actual smoking-related death toll.

OH come on.. and does that take into account all those maimed for life in WWII?