Killing oneself by seconds! Is smoking all that bad?

Tweet

To all the smokers in the house! How many sticks of cigarette do you smoke per day? I once read a research report on the direct hazardous effect of cigarette on life span. The research has it that a stick of cigaretter reduces longivity by 3 seconds. For instance, if one smokes 20 sticks/day, his/her life span will be reduced by 1 minute. If we assume linearity and given that all things were equal, an individual who smokes 20 sticks/day will by the end of the year smoked 20*365 sticks and thus have his/her life span reduced by 365 minutes (approximately 6hrs) per year. This gives an average of 1 day in every four years. This does not include side effects like TB and chest disease. Now the question is whether cigarette is as bad as people are made to believe? If not, what other arguement can be put up to discourage smoking? Maybe air polution.