When I quit smoking back in the seventies it was also because of the lung cancer scare. I never even considered oral cancer. My sister died from lung cancer and emphasema and she smoked right up until she died, alternating her oxygen mask with a cigarillo. Some of us NEVER get it and it kills us (God allows that to happen). Even in AA the popular notion is that alcohol MIGHT kill you but cigarettes will DEFINITELY kill you. My grandparents lived into their 80's but had problems attributed to tobacco use even though they didn't die from lung cancer. Strokes, breast cancer and heart attacks are linked to smoking. My grandfather had lip cancer from a pipe. Tobacco use is like sun exposure. You can be exposed for x number of years (around 25 to be exact) and then your risk of lung cancer remains unchanged even if you quit(although the risk from other diseases declines). Air pollutants also factor into this so that's why more people in their 30's (particularly women)are being dx'd earlier in life (and also kids smoking habitually at at earlier age).

Back when I was in the Navy one of the guys used to laugh and say "anyone can quit smoking - it takes a man to die of cancer". Needless to say my perception of that statement has changed somewhat since I COULD have died from cancer.

You're right about one thing for sure - it is practically almost futile to get someone to stop an addictive behavior. They have to WANT to quit. Maybe some kind of shock might work, but we all saw the "blackened lung" in the museum jar and other shocking things(remember "Mechanized Death" in drivers ed?)and it really didn't have any long term effect on us. Maybe you can show him the link from my post in this topic from September 20th if it is still there - it had pretty good shock value.

I watch my 2 step kids smoke and it's like they say with alcohol addiction - "cunning, baffling and powerful".

"...it's all in the numbers": The latest numbers are that 550,500 Americans (1,500 every day, including weekends and holidays) will die from cancer this year. 1 in EVERY 4 deaths are from cancer (and the 3 out of 4 who DON'T die from cancer are most likely the non-smoking, tofu eating heath nuts)- your numbers are better with Russian Roulette (at least you'd have a 1 in 6 chance)! Another 8.9 million Americans (like myself) are the "walking wounded", people either battling, in remission, in "complete response" to treatment or in hospice.