February 15, 2012   I am physician and much of what we do is smoking related disease.  Treatment of emphysema and the diagnosis of lung cancer is a regular occurrence. In the 10 days before New Year’s Day I diagnosed lung cancer three separate times—all were incurable at the time of discovery—and on Christmas Eve we could do nothing to stop a woman from dying because of unrelenting bleeding in her windpipe, possibly an undiscovered tumor, bleeding into her lungs—may be it was tuberculosis but that is less prevalent and less likely.  So, I hope you can see why this season, more than ever, I am troubled by the multiple and overwhelming costs of the addiction to tobacco products.  So let me ramble a bit today about disease, cost, politics, and smoking cessation efforts. 

For More Information:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/12/1064005/-A-Late-Happy-New-Year-May-Smoking-Cessation-be-your-Resolution