---
author: ''
category: ''
date: 2010/11/17 23:10
description: ''
link: ''
priority: ''
slug: BB942
tags: Writing
title: Smoking 40 cigarettes a day decreases risk of lightning strikes, say statistics!
type: text
updated: 2010/11/17 23:10
url_type: ''
---
This title came to mind when I saw in the news references to an article in The Lancet about how in 2030 7 out of 10 deaths would be due to cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, and chronic obstructive respiratory diseases.

The lesson most newspapers get out of this is "whoa, we are a bunch of lazy, salt and fat eating morons and we are all gonna die".

Sure, we are all gonna die, and yes, more people will die of those chronic illnesses in 2030. But that's mostly because we are not going to die of many other things that used to kill us earlier.

So, eat more veggies, stop smoking and don't worry too much.

Oh, and about cigarettes and lightning? I must confess I don't have the numbers to prove it, but I would be **very** surprised if that was not the case. After all, smoking 40 cigarettes a day should reduce your life expectation, and the less you live, the less likely are you to be hit by lightning. It's even a direct causal connection!