Marlboro man dies of Lung cancer

Life expectancy for people born in 1941, when Lawson (age 72) was born, is 63.5. Hence smoking most likely extended his life by 8.5 years relative to his birth cohort.

Note also that tobacco smoke is a potent anti-inflammatory substance and the statistical association of smoking with COPD is due to self-medication -- people with chronic lung inflammation (which eventually results in COPD in more advanced age), or those genetically susceptible to general inflammations, will be more likely to start smoking and will have harder time quitting under pressures to quit, since tobacco smoke provides perceptible relief from the inflammatory symptoms. Hence, the statistical associations on non-randomized samples (which is what antismoking "science" is based on) is due to self-medication.

For example, Rheumatoid Arthritis is positively associated with smoking and doctors will strongly urge and pester RA patients to quit smoking and switch to synthetic corticosteroids (instead of using their own, stimulated by tobacco smoke). Yet, when animal experiments are conducted, such as recent RA mice experiment, where mice with induced RA, were divided into 3 groups, smoking group, nicotine group and controls (not exposed to either), there was a little "surprise." The smoking group had the longest delay before the onset of RA and had the least damage to the joints. The next was the nicotine group, while the "healthy living" controls had the earliest RA onset and the most damage to their joints (see this post for references & further discussion).

While no such experiments are done on humans, the closest to well controlled comparison is in environments where there is common harmful pro-inflammatory lung exposure, such as industrial toxins in a factory or in mines. In those situations the smokers end up with the least lung damage (such as 6x lower rates of emphysema). This "paradoxical" effect is so strong that it has it has its own "scientific" name, the "strong smoker effect"' i.e. it is assumed that those who still smoke despite such harsh conditions, are genetically stronger, more resilient to lung damage. Of course, no has ever conducted any research to verify that kind of wishful conjecture. It is simply handwaved to explain away the facts that don't fit. (See 2nd half of this post for references and more detail.)

Of course, there is a hard science that genuinely explains the protective effect -- besides the above anti-inflammatory effects, tobacco smoke also strongly upregulates the three main antioxidant and detox enzymes in human body, glutathione by 80%, catalase and SOD (superoxide dismutase) by nearly 100%. With nearly doubled detox rates, along with the anti-inflammatory effects, the smokers enjoy strong protection against the harsh conditions compared to non-smokers.

As in the case of RA, the same protective effect is also the mechanism behind the statistical associations on non-randomized samples between smoking and "smoking related diseases" (such as COPD and lung cancer) -- due to self-medication confounding (which never taken into account since such therapeutic effects of smoking are a strong taboo in antismoking "science"), increased smoking rates among people living or working in harsh conditions is merely a statistical marker or a proxy for exposure to industrial or environmental toxins.

luciddream
My calculus professor, probably 70 by now.. he told me when he was young, they had these x-ray machines in shoe store that allows you to look at your feet through the shoes.

It was banned because it caused cancer.... He cursed that for his cancer(hope he is still alive).

edit: Anyone by chance know what he was talking about?

Yes, of course. I remember seeing the skeleton of my father's feet in one of them. They were about chest high. You stuck your feet in the slot by the floor and looked through a "viewfinder" kind of like you'd see on radar sets. You could see the skeleton of your feet. The idea was to help you in fitting shoes properly. It was more a gimmick than anything else.

I doubt seriously if anyone ever caught cancer by one of these devices. Ever hear of cancer of the foot? But they were removed because they were radioactive and therefore considered dangerous, the same way radium watch dials were removed. You also can't buy mercury in bottles any more and make your own thermometer. The Nanny State doesn't want us to hurt ourselves.

As for this guy dying at 71, most people would consider this an okay lifespan. If he had died of a heart attack people would have said, "Oh, well. Joe Camel had a good life" and leave it at that. But because he died of COPD, it's now "ironic." Not that I believe smoking is good for you, but I wonder what we all do today as a matter of course that the next generation will show "causes cancer" and will see our own deaths as "ironic."

reply to post by schuyler


Haha could be, but when he told us the story, he blamed the machine.

Also it was bone cancer.

reply to post by Expat888


I must admit I have a major déja vu reading the title of this thread.
And I'm not the one endulging in the 'different timeframe' threads.

Sadly if you promote smoking to the youth of my nation.......too bad so sad!
Want to promote cigarettes then here join the list!

FROM SNOPES:
•Wayne McLaren, who posed for some promotional photographs on behalf of Marlboro in 1976, succumbed to lung cancer at age 51 on 22 July 1992. McLaren was a former professional rodeo rider who appeared in small parts in various television series and movies (primarily Westerns) throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and he modeled for print advertising between acting jobs in the mid-1970s, including a Marlboro campaign in 1976. McLaren, who had a pack-and-a-half a day smoking habit, was diagnosed with lung cancer at age 49. Despite chemotherapy, the removal of one lung, and radiation treatments, the cancer eventually spread to his brain and killed him. After learning he had cancer, McLaren embarked on an anti-smoking campaign that included the production of a commercial described as follows:
In the powerful TV spot, images of the handsome young Wayne McLaren in a Stetson hat are juxtaposed with shots of his withered form in a hospital bed just prior to his death. His brother, Charles, provides the voiceover and chides tobacco companies for promoting an 'independent' lifestyle and asks, 'Lying there with all those tubes in you, how independent can you really be?'
In the last months of his life McLaren appeared before the Massachusetts legislature when it was considering a bill to add taxes to cigarettes to pay for health education and also spoke at the annual Philip Morris stockholders' meeting to support a resolution that the company limit its advertising. Philip Morris initially denied that McLaren had ever appeared in Marlboro advertising, but a company spokesperson later conceded that McLaren's image had been used in a retail display for Marlboro Texan Poker Cards. (The woman McLaren lived with for the last eight years of his life also produced a Marlboro magazine advertisement which she claimed pictured McLaren.)

•David McLean, who appeared in many Marlboro television and print advertisements starting in the early 1960s, also died of cancer at age 73 on 12 October 1995. McLean starred in the short-lived 1960 television Western Tate, and he played roles in numerous television series and feature films during the 1960s and 1970s. McLean took up smoking at age 12, began to suffer from emphysema in 1985, and had a cancerous tumor removed from his right lung in 1993.

Despite the surgery, the cancer remained and spread to his brain and spine, and McLean succumbed to it in 1995. In August 1996 McLean's widow and son filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Philip Morris, Inc., claiming that McLean was unable to stop smoking because of his nicotine addiction, and that his smoking habit was the cause of his lung cancer. (The lawsuit contended, among other issues, that McLean had been obligated to smoke up to five packs per take in order to get the right look while posing for advertisements, and that he received cartons of Marlboro cigarettes as gifts from Philip Morris.) At last report (in 1999) the lawsuit was still pending, having outlasted all attempts by defendant Philip Morris to have it dismissed.

• In 2014, Eric Lawson, another television actor who appeared in Marlboro advertisements between 1978 to 1981, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at the age of 72. Like Wayne McLaren, Lawson was also a habitual smoker from an early age who in later life publicized the dangers of smoking and contributed to the production of an anti-smoking commercial:
A smoker since age 14, Lawson later appeared in an anti-smoking commercial that parodied the Marlboro man and an "Entertainment Tonight" segment to discuss the negative effects of smoking. Susan [Lawson] said her husband was proud of the interview, even though he was smoking at the time and continued the habit until he was diagnosed with COPD.

"He knew the cigarettes had a hold on him," she said. "He knew, yet he still couldn't stop."

Although diseases such as lung cancer and COPD are strongly linked to cigarette smoking, it is not possible to definitively determine that any particular instance of such a disease was caused by smoking.

reply to post by brice

Your post probably explains my déja vu feeling.

And, I'd like to add: I enjoy my cigarettes, I'm not much of a fan of this extreme anti-smoking propaganda/paternalism we see the last ten years.

reply to post by Movhisattva


Hi Mov,
yeah, I remember when Eric Lawson while dying of cancer changed his tune and did ugly anti-smoking commercials.
Remember though Mov, under oath the Tobacco industry stated their target market is "the poor, uneducated or the stupid" what category do feel you fit into? I used to smoke until I saw that testimony and since I did not fall into any of those categories I quit. In my life, quitting was the second hardest thing I've done.........the first, burying my 33 year old sister and mother of 2 who passed away due to smoking related illness. She really enjoyed smoking too and would not quit for nothing,,,,well almost nothing!
good luck to you.
brice

WTH
I thought this guy already died of cancer from smoking a long time ago??? Gee Wiz I Remember seeing it on the news AND reading about it. This was like 10+ years ago.

reply to post by brice


Hi Brice,

Thank you for your powerful reply, I hear you, 100%.
My condoleances for your sister, who had my current age (and I smoke for 21 years now).
I know it's my addiction, and I don't encourage anyone to start the habit, on the contrary.

I guess my point is that I prefer to fight -or maintain- my habits myself, when I feel like, how I feel like, without a society treating me as a paria because I choose to smoke a cig. (I only smoke shag, by the way).
I think I'm educated, smart and rich (although I don't have the lots of money) enough to decide for myself whether I smoke or not.

Again, sorry for your loss, and thank you for opening my eyes (better than any anti-smoking campaign could), it's just that I prefer to carry my own burden, and I carry it with pleasure.

Condemning humans who smoke will not help them one bit.
Your warning from the heart does.
Therefore: thank you. Without promising anything, of course.

reply to post by Movhisattva

reply to post by Fylgje


I also had a sense of deja vu. But this is probably explained by the link in the OP: "A few actors and models who pitched Marlboro brand cigarettes have died of smoking-related diseases. They include David Millar, who died of emphysema in 1987, and David McLean, who died of lung cancer in 1995."

I am glad that i have titillated the thoughts of some people here...

I also remember the Marlboro man dying back in the 90s.

So the question is, WHO was the original Marlboro man?

Kindest respects

Rodinus

Ps. Oh and by the way, sorry for the new avatar, thought it was about time for a change.