Perhaps I'm just a grumpy old fart, or something, but I have noticed that there are more and more cigarettes being smoked. I don't know whether its the recession or the fact that I live in Spokane but I've noticed on several occasions while siting at a stop light in the city (by the way, Spokane has the slowest stop lights in the country. Fact), that I'm between two cars where the drivers are puffing up.Now I have hard proof that the recession is causing people to smoke more.
With a survey showing a quarter of smokers worried about the recession are smoking more, and another 13 per cent are delaying quitting for the same reason, experts say the new report reflects an urgent need to debunk the "mythic relaxation response" of cigarettes.
The tobacco companies must be loving this. I wonder how many smokers we'll see wheezing up Doomsday Hill at Bloomsday next weekend. My guess is not very many.
