>>>>In my young and crazy years I did drink too much (the quip about washing away brain cells definately was true back then) and in the young and stupid years I was a smoker - there might have been some overlap ;-)
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>>Latest evidence I saw was that 5 years after stopping smoking, the risks are similar to those of somebody who never smoked. The trick is to quit 5 years before you get the cancer: around 86% of lung cancers are smoking-related.
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>I doubt whether that is entirely true. Johan Cruif, Europe's best soccer player of the 20th century quit smoking about 20 years ago when he got a heart attack. He was a very heavy smoker up to his middle 40-ties. Guess what, he now got lung cancer. I find it a bit hard to believe his cancer is unrelated to his past.
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>I've got real problems with the 'evidence' of those research cases. In most cases it is way too thin. Since cancers are slow developing and often appear decades later, I do not hold much fate in such conclusions.

Cancer is only one side effect.
Emphysema, I can personally attest, is another serious side effect of smoking.
I smoked for about 25 years. So far I seemed to have dodged the cancer bullet, but I can't walk up a hill on a golf course without huffing and puffing and taking frequent breath stops. I have about 50% of the lung capacity I should have at my age.
I know several ex-smokers who can't even watch TV without oxygen support.