greg@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith) (04/02/86)
*********************** The following is from the Toronto Star, Mar 31 1986, Page C1: ( without permission ): A voluntary risk chart in the 1984-85 edition of "Contraceptive Technology", an annual update co-written by [ Dr. Robert ] Hatcher, gives smokers a 1-in-200 chance of dying in one year. Women smokers using oral contraceptives have a 1-in-16,000 chance of dying in one year. For non-smokers on the pill, the death-in-one- year odds are 1 in 63,000; for women using an IUD, they are 1-in-100,000... So, folks, the ill effects of smoking are greatly lessened by the oral contraceptive. Furthermore, if you take this pill *and* refrain from smoking, you can expect to live many thousands of years. If you use an IUD, you will probably live even longer. So birth control will *not*, in fact, help to reduce the population explosion. But how do we men get in on this? (Note: The above is just a satire of a badly-reported set of statistics. I do not mean to imply that the Pill lessens the ill effects of smoking; the opposite is in fact aparrently true. ) -- "If you aren't making any mistakes, you aren't doing anything". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Greg Smith University of Toronto UUCP: ..utzoo!utcsri!greg