True story: I had a geologist friend who died a few years back. He was a skeptic and also a huge smoker. He developed cancer and died in 2007 (he didn't even hit 50). One of my last memories of him was while he was under treatment and having lunch with me, and with huge breathing problems, while holding a lit cig, he firmly told me that his condition wasn't smoking related. he died a few months later from suffocation during the night.