My parents didn't smoke at all. So it's hard for me to comment on that portion of your question.

But those X-rays that used to be used truly can be the cause of serious problems years later. My husband had X-rays as a small child to shrink some sort of problem with his neck. In his 30's, he had a thyroid nodule that several dr's decided was cancerous. They prepared us for that eventuality. Fortunately, when it was removed and tested, it was not. But he's on synthroid for the rest of his life, now. His cousin wasn't so lucky. She had the same X-rays, and after a 9 year battle with thyroid cancer, died last fall from it.

If you had the high dose X-rays as a child, it's well worth having your dr. keep an eye on things on a regular basis. Good luck.

Both of my Parents Smoked.

My Dad got the Flu in 1965 and quit smoking. Mom smoked until she was 40 and quit cold turkey when her younger Sister had a heart attack.

Both of my Parents were very healthy and active. Avid Golfers and enjoyed water skiing.

Mom said she smoked during Pregnancy after Morning Sickness subsided. She was a closet smoker and didn't want anyone to know she smoked. Especially any of her Baptist Friends.

Gayle

Yes, they both did. My Dad was still smoking at age 65 when he died of a massive coronary. My Mother still smoked until the age of 79 when she was taken by lung cancer. I also started smoking at age 14 and quit 38 years later. I'm so thankful I finally saw the light. I've felt so much better after quiting and seldom have colds or respiratory infections. When I smoked, I used to think I would die with bronchitis, I'd get it so bad. ugh!

I can't help but think that the second hand smoke had to have been bad for us Susan. I too remember being car sick and it may have been the cigarette smoke I was inhaling as much as the motion of the car.

mother did, dad didn't...she was wise enough to quit smoking while she was pregnant...then started up again...she lived to be almost 90 but we really don't know all the ills she was suffering from. (she'd quit smoking in the 60's)

i often wonder if a science teacher in jr high had published or was doing a study. she asked everyone in class if they'd had dental xrays...(it was about 1959-60, le conte jr hi ca)

I had the radiation treatment on my thymus gland when I was a baby.

I have heard that 1 out of 5 adults that were treated with it as a child will have cancer.

My dad smoked, my mother did not. I never have. Denny did most all of our married life. He quit when he had his stroke.

I have a lot of sinus "gunk" ALL the time...but don't have headaches or get sick because of it.

I am very rarely sick. I get things like poor circulation (which can be cause from smoking....???maybe 2nd hand??) vertigo, don't know what causes that.
But I never have the flu, headaches, earaches,stomach aches.

I had strep throat about 35 years ago was the last time.

I would say all the problems I have...are from being overweight...which is self imposed...shame on me.

patti

My Dad smoked cigarettes and a pipe until about the time I graduated from High School. Mom smoked cigarettes, but quit a few years before that. I don't think either were heavy smokers and don't remember them smoking in the car at all.

I was also a smoker as well as DH. We both quit 10 years ago this month. My DD had adenoid problems too (had them taken out and they grew back and had to be taken out a second time) - I wonder if her adenoid problems were caused by second-hand smoke?

I was actually just thinking this week about things that may have caused my current health problems. My Dad used to bring home little vials of Mercury for my DB and I to play with. Each had about a dime sized blob of mercury and he brought them home quite often while we were in grade school. I'm sure he had been told it was dangerous, but he probably didn't understand HOW dangerous it was. We'd play with it until it was gone or lost. I didn't know that even the vapor it gives off was harmful until I read some articles yesterday.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mercury Poisoned

Both my parents smoked, but my dad quit in the early 60s when I was a baby so I never saw him smoke. It's really odd to see pictures of him with a cigarrette in him mouth. My mom smoked most of my life and tried everything to quit, took her years and years and she finally quit. She still died of heart disease.

I have asthma and I wonder if it was from all those years of smoke exposure. I also worked in an onion dehydration plant and breathed in dirt/dust from tons of dirty onions...and I wonder about that too.

My mom smoked and my dad did too, although he didn't seem like a chain smoker. I truely think it affected my lungs as a teenager and somewhat even now. I wonder back,, if I smelled like an ash tray in school. What did my frineds secretly think about that? I've never been able to run or jog very long, even though my legs feel great, my lungs burn like fire. I would love to jog but I can't because of my lung pain.

My dad smoked pipes and cigars till I was about 10. My mom quit 30 years ago and is going to be 90 soon. I don't if I can blame them for any health problems. I never smoked.
Clare

Oh, dear, mercury. I remember playing with it, too, but I was past childhood (I think), and it was only one time (again, I think).

Re asthma, when my son was a child he had allergies and frequent croup, and the pediatrician told me it was a very good thing his parents didn't smoke.

Lydia-DH and I were just discussing the mercury thing.I remember playing with it when I was a kid! Kinda scarry when you think about it.
My dad (step dad) smoked for a lot of years and did smoke in the house and car.He quit when I was about 16.he had triple bypass surgery when he was in his 60's but was in pretty good health after that.He was 86 when he died and suffered from dementia for a couple of years before his death.Mother never smoked or drank.Mother was in relatively good health until about 4 years before her death when she was 88.they both started failing in health just a few years before they died so I don't know if smoking or not had anything to do with it.
I think there has been some research done on the secondhand smoke thing recently and they are saying it may not be as dangerous as once thought.I don't see how it could be good for anyone though.LOL

Both parents smoked.
Ex h smoked.
DH smokes.

Guess I have "smoked" all my life.

anette

Lillie, the recent news reports I heard/read said that it's actually more dangerous than had been thought. Check out some of these headlines in the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Google News

Both of my parents smoked. Mom quit in 1977 after her first heart attack and my dad quit in 1974 when he had thyroid problems.

When my mom harps at me to quit I tell her it's because of her that I do. LOL!

My mother was a moderate smoker, my dad didn't smoke. My DIL has asthma and many allergies, and wonders if it could be because her father was a very heavy smoker. He died of lung cancer when she was in college.

I have never smoked but both my parents smoked. Dad quit when he was about 40, but died of liver cancer at age 75. He was never a hard drinker. He would have a glass of wine with Christmas dinner. Other than that, I never saw him drink. Mom has always smoked. She is now 84, has severe emphysema and COPD. She has an oxygen tank 24/7. She still sneaks about 5 cigarettes a day. I'm not sure about my siblings, but I have had asthma all my life, pneumonia several times. When I was about 30, I went to a new doctor for a physical. He listened to my chest and said "You must stop smoking." I did, when I moved out of my parents'home.

My Grandmother's house was on nasty well water, so she would give me a Nehi's to drink. On the way home, we'd get to about St.John IN and Dad would have to pull to the side of the road so I could loose my techicolor Nehi guts. He'd smoke non stop with the windows rolled up and the air conditioner recycling that cigarette smoke. It would turn my stomach inside out.
Same thing with my mom's best friend. When she would pick me up to take me to her house, she would smoke so much that she would have to give me an alki-seltzer when we got there.
I'd have to spring clean my Gramdma's house each year and I swear the white cabinets were beige......
All walls and windows had to be washed, and I hated doing those venitian blinds....

My father smoked, but my mother didn't. I remember a blue haze in the living room on days the house was closed up, and he was smoking. He died when he was 65 years old, but it was from a brain tumor caused by the chemicals he worked around for many years...benzene, mainly, I think.

Of 4 children, only one of us smoked, and that was my oldest brother but he quit after many years when he was in his 70's and he lived to be almost 84.

My mother lived to be 94 but died
mainly due to health issues brought on by living in a nursing home. Her doctor told me she was the healthiest person of her age that he had ever seen....saying the medical field should study people like my mother. I don't ever remember her being sick...like having a cold. She didn't believe in going to doctors, and to tell the truth, since she didn't get sick, she didn't believe anyone else did either. :) Well, sort of anyway.

I am very healthy, and I also don't get sick...I've never had the flu, or a sinus infection. I have no allergies that I am aware of. It has been at least 10 years since I had a cold.

Like Patti, I did have strep throat in my 20's.

I never had childhood vaccinations and had light cases of measles, mumps and chicken pox. I have no health problems that I know of...naturally low cholesterol (and I eat beef almost every day and have never bought margarine in my life), no trouble with sugar or blood pressure.

My husband has never smoked. My father was so against smoking that he wouldn't let me have those candy cigarettes.
I knew better than to try to take up that habit.

I would also question the radiation treatments you had, altho I really do believe that 99% of health is inherited.

Both were heavy smokers.
Dad had his first heart attack at age 40 and quit.
Mom continued to smoke and died of lung cancer at 51.
Dad died at 65 from a massive heart attack.

I've never smoked. However, before all the "no smoking" policies, I worked in government office buildings with co-workers who smoked (and a few also died of lung cancer). So, even as an adult, I was around it for a lot of years.

I've always had a lot of aches and pains and cancer scares (with biopsies that came up negative). I retired at 52 because my wonderful DH wants me to take good care of myself.

I guess I should feel encouraged that so many of you had smoking parents and you're still alive and kicking. :-)

And PS, Wonbyherwits: Here's to wonderful DH's!!

Both my parents smoked until I was in junior high or maybe high school. My mom may have quit sooner. My dad smoked both pipes and cigarettes. I can remember as a young child, my parents had poker parties at our house and after everyone left my mom put out saucers of vinegar to get rid of the cigar smoke smell. I always got car sick but I can't remember if they smoked in the car. I developed asthma as a child and still have it mildly now.
I never smoked but I can remember when people I worked with smoked at work.
My dad had a heart attack when he was 55 and a fatal heart attack when he was 60. My mom lived to be almost 94 but had COPD the last 15 or 20 years of her life. They both drank a lot besides smoking.

My parents smoked during my little girlhood; like from birth to four years old.

I haven't had any adult ailments though I can blame them for.
I was a smoker myself but quit fifteen years ago which is why I have frequent sinus problems. My bad knees are due to horse wrecks; can I blame it on my parents?

One thing I think we need to remember is our lives were much different fifty and sixty years ago. Houses were smaller but we spent most of time outdoors in the fresh air. This is not the case these days as kids seem to gravitate more to the computer and television than the softball diamond in the pasture or the bike riding with their friends. I don't know about other families but we rarely took long car rides when I was young and I don't remember my father smoking in the house other than with coffee in the morning. My mother either. They smoked outside. My babies probably spent more time in a car with smoker than I did but I quit while they were babies too so their exposure was only two and three years.

Any asthma I have is caused by my own smoking.
My kids?
It came by me I'm sure but was diagnosed as stress-caused asthma and is under control.

Hubby needs inhalers when it is cold. His father was a smoker too but Hubby also has hayfever type allergies. I don't think we can blame his old man for that, can we?

Maybe I'm just not in the category of people who need to blame someone for their health problems. Okay....My parents smoked. They didn't know better and they suffered for it (bad hearts and high blood pressure).

Lori

Maybe I'm just not in the category of people who need to blame someone for their health problems.

It was never my intention to "blame" my parents for my health problems. That's ridiculous. I adored my parents, and in fact I mentioned in my original post that they had no idea their cigarette smoke could be hurting their child or themselves.

I explore environmental factors because a) it interests me and b) I would like to think that my autoimmune issues, etc., are not likely to be inherited by my children.

The same thing goes for my husband's illness. He suffered with dementia for ten years before he died. Do I hope it resulted from all the chemicals he worked with most of his life? You bet I do.

Susan

My mother never smoked. My dad smoked a pipe for years,but got a real bad case of the flu when I was a Jr. in high school and didn't smoke while he was sick and when he got better said he lost all taste for tobacco and never smoked again, and lived another 30 years dying at age 86.

I've never smoked. DH smoked when we started going together and I asked him to quit, handed me his cigarettes and never smoked another one. Chewed lots of gum for awhile and that was 46 years ago.

We have never allowed smoking in our house, if someone wants to smoke they will have to go outside to do it. None of my siblings (5 of them) smoked nor do any of our 3 kids.

Both parents smoked. Anytime I am asked if I ever smoked, I feel like saying, "Yes, the first 20 years of my life!"

My father smoked unfiltered Camels for many years as did most of the men on both sides of my family. My mother never smoked but her sisters did. I never smoked a cigarette in my life, but husband did for about ten years. My father , altho he quit years ago, died of lung cancer at 71.

Mom was (mentally) sick for several years from when I was about 6 - I don't think that she smoked.

Dad smoked a pipe occasionally, and the occasional cigar (often when he was driving to town on a rainy day - cigar smoke sort of reminds me of that).

He had lung problems - bronchitis and incipient asthma.

A farmer, he sold his farm in this area when he was in his mid-40s, moved 1600 miles to the prairies when I was 17, and had 40 years of good health, there.

He chewed, for many years chewing tobacco, about a plug a day ... and about the time that he moved west, began chewing snuff, and a small box of the tiny fragments'd last him for about a week.

He was in good health - when 85, drove nearly 2,000 mi;. by himself in 3 days back to his old haunts to visit friends and relatives ... and drove out in front of a truck!

I started to smoke when I was about 16, after 6 months or so didn't care for the taste and, being stingy even back then, didn't like the cost, either ... so quit.

I have allergies to bee stings, dust and shellfish.

Now, nearing 80, enjoying good health - haven't taken a pill in a good thirty years.

Thankful.

Thankful.

ole joyfully thankful for my good fortune

P.S. Good wishes to you - and I hope for the same for all of you.

o j

Yes they both smoked ,out of family of 7 I was the only one that never smoked.I thought it was dirty...

Both of my parents smoked for most of my life. They only quit about 10 years ago. They smoked all the time, even at the dinner table in our teeny, cramped kitchen. I think that's why none of their 3 children smoked.

I wonder what we might be doing now that will affect the health of our children. I can think of a few, especially in our overprocessed foods that contain too much sodium and fats. But there are others - our over reliance on antibiotics that are now losing their effectiveness, too many household cleaners chemicals and antibiotic everything, air pollution, the growing obesity problem and the sedentary lifestyle of so many of us.

We all want the best for our children.

A man, after an intimate encounter with a lady who was a stranger, felt the need for a cigarette and was walking around the room while smoking.

He thought that this was not a very considerate act, so asked the lady whether she smoked after intercourse.

Lifting the sheet and looking down, she said, "No".

o j

Yes, they did. Dad smoked a lot. Mom did not smoke during her pregnancies and infrequently in between. Two of us kids were asthmatics, and I am sure Dad's smoking did not help. This was decades before the Surgeon General's report.

My father smoked.....heavy all of his life. He died at 64 from heart aneurysm....his father died of the same at 72. I was daddy's little girl...with him as much as possible. I would lay with him on the couch when he would take his 'noon nap', ride in the tractors with him..smoking, we would take Sunday drives..he was smoking in the closed up car.

I started smoking at 12...lightly, was smoking regularly at 16.

When I was 19, my lung collapsed completely. Dr. told me that I needed to stop smoking....I was smarter than the Dr.! HA The 2nd time it collapsed Dr. told me that I HAD to quit, I cut back dramatically. The 3rd time, Dr. told me I had 2 choices....quit smoking and walk out of the hospital, or continue smoking and they could just leave all the tubes and oxygen on me and stay in the hospital. Well...I quit at that point.

I had the corrective surgery on my lung when I was 21. At that point, the specialist asked about family smoking. He said that there was a thought that it was a lung defect, and if you had it, it would generally show up at 19 when the lung was done growing. I was a small baby, and dad was a heavy smoker. Dr. said those were the 2 biggest against my lungs. Of course, I never told my dad this...it would have broke his heart to think that he might have been a cause to all the pain I went through...and still have.

Both my parents smoked. I am proud that , of their four children, none are snokers!

My dad smoked up until about 30 years ago and my mom was just a social smoker. She didn't smoke much when she was alone, just when socializing.
I always thought it was really odd that both of my parents were smokers and none of their three children became habitual smokers.
Lulie

Joyful, that's a good one.
When I was a kid, every time an anti-smoking commercial came on TV, I would sneak in the kitchen and take a pack of cigarettes out of mom and dad's stash and throw it in the garbage. I felt I was doing my part and they blamed my brothers for the missing cigs - double bonus!

Both of my parents were heavy smokers, but none of us 7 kids ever smoked. My mother died of lung cancer at 58, and my dad is still smoking quite a bit at 83.

My father was a heavy smoker. He didn't have any
health problems, until his 80's. He died of heart disease,
at 84. DH and I were both
smokers. I'm 50, and consider myself pretty healthy.

No and I am very grateful for that. My husband and I have never smoked, and neither have our 3 kids.

My dad did,but mom didn't.

I'm also one who had the radiation treatments,for me it was for mastoids.Later in life i developed hypothyroidsm,which they related to the xrays.I too have to take synthroid every day of my life and have since the early 70's.
Kathi