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Smokers have a 11-17% chance of developing lung cancer, according to this study.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7895211

As a smoker, my two thoughts are:

1.) I'd rather have a 10% chance of dying than a 10% chance of living many years with something like Alzheimer's.

2.) I'm not someone who says "I wish I could quit but I'm addicted", I find it easy not to smoke but I do it because I really enjoy smoking. I'm trading possible early death with current pleasure. Alzheimer's doesn't have any upside or choice involved.

You say it like if you smoke, you cannot get Alzheimer.

No, I really don't. I was merely pointing out the difference between smoking risks and normal risks. As a smoker maybe I have an equal chance of getting lung cancer as Alzheimer's, but personally I'm more worried about the latter.

Hi, just wanted to make clear that my main point is that most people consider the risks of smoking and getting cancer to be a real concern. So I find it disingenuous for the author to claim that "Hey 10%! That's pretty unlikely!"

Probably should have added something like that to the original post, my pardon.

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