As you may have heard, Captain Phil Harris of Discovery Channel's insanely popular show "Deadliest Catch" has passed away after experiencing a series of debilitating strokes.  Captain Harris was only 53 years old - far younger than the typical victim of a fatal stroke.

As anyone who has watched the show knows, everyone smokes like crazy on Alaskan fishing vessels.  Captain Harris even had a scare in a recent season when he started coughing up blood, and x-rays showed a spot on his lungs.  Nevertheless, he kept smoking.  I well remember a poignant scene of Captain Harris standing out on the sidewalk of the Anchorage hospital, wheeling his IV cart before him, just another smoke break.

Lung cancer gets most of the attention as far as smoking related deaths goes, but stroke is pretty high up the list as well.  In fact, the American Lung Association estimates that 75% of strokes are caused by smoking.  In addition to crippling diseases like emphysema, there are a variety of ways in which smoking is lethal.

Nevertheless, smoking is still considered an issue of personal choice.  In a world where it's illegal to drive without a seatbelt, most people think of smoking as "well, it's his decision."  Despite the fact that the cigarette manufacturers admit to having manipulated nicotine levels in their cigarettes in order to hit the sweet spot between addictive properties and lethality.  (Although nicotine is the addictive ingredient in cigarettes, it is also a lethal poison.  You can't put in too much, or you'll kill people right away [as opposed to years later like usual].)

What I find interesting is that a lot of the people who are opposed to restricting "smoker's rights" are also opposed to health care reform.  Which is odd, because smoking related deaths and illnesses drive up the costs of health care more than any other issue save obesity.

440,000 people die of smoking-related deaths each year.  That's 147 times the number of people who died in 9/11, 10 times the number of people who die in car accidents, and 3,666 times the number of people who died in airplane crashes.  And yet all of those other causes get far more media attention and mindshare among the public.

I have often said that if our government actually wanted to reduce the death rate and the corresponding health care costs, it would subsidize the cost of smoking cessation therapy.  Nicorette would be given out free at clinics, not unlike methadone.  Unfortunately, our government is deep within the pockets of the tobacco industry, which contribute a staggering amount of money to our nation's coffers every year.

If anyone was a die-hard addicted smoker, it was Captain Harris.  It takes a lot to be hospitalized for a spot on your lungs and be coughing up blood, and still smoke.  Was it his choice to push that IV cart out the door and stand in the snow to have a cigarette?  I can think of few more humiliating situations.  

However, Captain Harris' death is being reported as having been caused by stroke.  Although the stroke is certainly the proximate cause, it cannot be doubted that cigarettes killed Deadliest Catch's Captain Phil Harris.  Like all other smokers, Harris did not choose to become addicted to a lethal (and expensive) substance.  Nor did he choose to leave his kids, his ship, and his crew behind at the relatively young age of 53.

Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user Saudi...