"I smoke because I like the flavor"
I smoke for flavor. Or, I smoke to stand out as looking good. The man pictured above, and the thousands of others like him who smoke after losing their voice boxes are classic examples of why people actually smoke. They smoke because they are addicted to nicotine.
When a man or woman loses his or her larynx (voice box), he or she is no longer able to speak by normal means. A new process of speaking known as esophageal speech must be learned, a process of swallowing air and belching it up that is not mastered by all who have the procedure. There are electronic devices that help assist in the speaking process, but to date the resulting voice is very mechanical and automated sounding. Smokers have a much higher incidence of cancer of the larynx than non-smokers. Heavy alcohol consumption is also a known risk factor, and people who both smoke and drink are at highest risk.
This man and other laryngectomy patients are no longer able to breath through their nose or mouth, they must breath through holes inserted into their throats. This man is still smoking, through a tracheotomy tube straight into his throat. This man is getting no tobacco flavor, he is not going anywhere near a taste bud. He is not smoking because he somehow thinks that he is standing out as looking good or cool. He smokes now for the same reason he smoked before his cancer-he is a drug addict feeding his addiction. Conditions like this show just how addictive nicotine is and how controlled smokers are by this deadly drug.
If you are a member of Freedom now, it means you have at least three days under your belt with no nicotine in you and that you now have the upper hand in controlling this addiction. As long as you keep nicotine out now it can never exert this kind of force over your free will again. You have all reduced your risks of developing such conditions, and your risks will continue to drop and your level of control get stronger and stronger over time, and will stay on that course as long as you keep your reasons for quitting strong and your resolve reinforced to never take another puff!
Joel
Photo from Tobacco and Your Health
Harold S. Diehl, M.D.
McGraw-Hill - © 1969
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