>>2604449>people claiming that pipes never kill peopleThere’s always going to be exceptions in everything that exists. I’m sure there have been cases where somebody developed oral cancer due to pipe smoking and left it unchecked and eventually died. The only reason I brought cigs up was because the other anon lumped pipes with all other types of smoking, including cigarettes, which was disingenuous. Then he started mixing in cocaine use too. It’s 100% fact that cigarette smoking is way more dangerous than pipe smoking.
>I think pipes are associated with old men simply because they became unfashionable and younger men stopped smoking them. I still disagree with that. Even at the turn of the century, pipe smoking had been associated with wise old men, hence the classic tropes of a wizard with his pipe, an old sea captain with his pipe, Santa Claus with his pipe, etc. Of course, more young men did smoke pipes in the 50s and 60s than now, but the association of pipes with old men was still there. And like I said before, I’m not denying there are old men who smoke cigarettes. I’m sure there are. However, the association isn’t there. People over the age of 60 make up only around 10% of all cigarette smokers. There’s no real statistics regarding the age of pipe smokers, but based on different pipe communities online, I’d estimate that same age group to be at least 40%, if not higher. And part of that is because the risk of health problems is far less than other forms of smoking like cigarettes, of which 70% of all deaths from cigarette smoking are in the 60+ age group, so many quit before that age. There aren’t many statistics regarding exclusive pipe smokers, but a simple look at the piping community will tell you there is an undeniably large amount of old men that make up pipe smokers, and a simple look at Western culture and history will show you that the association between old men and pipes has always been there, even when pipes were in fashion.
