Re:"Where (ideally on the Internet) can I find data on how the health effects
of
smoking depend on the level of intake (e.g., 3 cigs/day, 1 pack/day, 3
packs/day)? TIA!"

1. The more ya smokes. the quicker and deeper your health goes to hell.
2. A couple of cigs a day is as habit-forming/maintaining as a carton a day.
3. Two cigs smells as bad, on our clothes and on our breath, as a pack a day.
4. You said it yourself: Transient Ischemic Attacks.

Question: How's a bucket of arsenic and skunk spray per day compare to an ounce
of arsenic and skunk spray daily?

Answer: Who cares? They're equally repulsive, and either will make life
miserable.

Mike

Re:"1. The more ya smokes. the quicker and deeper your health goes to hell.
Thanks, but that's not data."

You're right, of course, both in and between the lines. But in the absence of
data I will sometimes try to make a point in other ways. I have gotten so tired
of smokers trying to find a way to justify, escuse, or rationalize their
harmful habit ("I don't inhale", or "I smoke only a few a day, and could quit
anytime [see next quote]") that I sometimes get preachy about it.

Re:" 2. A couple of cigs a day is as habit-forming/maintaining as a carton a
day.
Can you support this assertion?"

Sorry, but I read it minnyminny years ago, quoted as the result of some study.
If it's correct, it is quite vital info for people trying to quit.

Re:" 3. Two cigs smells as bad, on our clothes and on our breath, as a pack a
day.
4. You said it yourself: Transient Ischemic Attacks.
Question: How's a bucket of arsenic and skunk spray per day compare to an
ounce of arsenic and skunk spray daily?
 Answer: Who cares? They're equally repulsive, and either will make life
miserable.

How is this appropriate to sci.med?"

In the loose sense that I long ago gave up trying to answer smoking questions
(I don't bother to comment on it unless they ask, or unless I can't walk away
from the smoke) with logical medical issues; they've heard it all. But I'm
constantly surprised they don't realize how bad they -- and their clothes,
hair, home, and car --  smell.

Maybe I should add that I've worked for the Dept of Defense for 20 years, which
banned smoking in its buildings about 25 years ago, and know very few people
who smoke. I've just not had to put up with it much since growing up with
parents whose lives were cut short by cigarettes and {*filter*}.

Notice that I didn't even ask whether you smoked or were perhaps asking for
data to help someone else quit smoking. It wasn't important to me because my
comments addressed either case: Whether you are the smoker or you might pass on
my comments to a smoker, the message is still appropriate. Sorry you got in the
line of fire.

Mike