Boy, you just love worshipping at the altar of "SCIENCE!!!" when it suits your agenda, don't ya?

There was no science to that effect when they earned the nickname, just common sense.

Folks around here called 'em "cancer sticks".

"Dr Ken Denson of the Thame Thrombosis and Haemostasis Research Foundation questioned the validity of the figures.

He said other large studies had not found that smoking fewer than 10 cigarettes daily increased the risk of heart disease."

andy:

He's notorious for same:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/smoking/Story/0,2763,196416,00.html

I don't smoke between one and four cigarettes, so I guess this doesn't apply to me.

Seriously, given how much the anti-tobocco side lies (see all the bogus SHS studies, some published by the same biased journal that published these results) why should anyone listen to them any more?

carter:

Their health.

Many of us who smoke do so for health reasons - mental health:

http://www.newyorkcityvoices.org/nov0124.htm

Basically, what this study is saying is if you're gonna smoke, be a three pack a day smoker. And no filter tips, ya baby!

crater:

Self-destructive behavior isn't mentally healthy.

Exactly. Well put.

I'm not sure when "cancer sticks" was coined, probably mid-60s. Before that they were called "coffin nails." According to one of my dictionaries that term goes back to 1888. So more than 70 years before the surgeon general's report there was enough anecdotal evidence around for a very negative term to enter the language.

Around 1918 there was a song, I believe written by Irving Berlin, with the lyrics ". . . ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if the Camels don't get you the Fatimas must." Not scientific, but a clear indication that some level of awareness was penetrating the popular culture.