ARE NON-SMOKERS SMARTER THAN SMOKERS?

CIGARETTE SMOKERS HAVE LOWER IQ
THAN NON-SMOKERS, A STUDY REVEALS

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cigarette smokers have lower IQs than non-smokers, and the more a person smokes, the lower their IQ, according to a study of over 20,000 Israeli military recruits. Dr. Mark Weiser and colleagues from Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer found that young men who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day or more had IQ scores 7.5 points lower than non-smokers. While there is evidence for a link between smoking and lower IQ, many studies have relied on intelligence tests given in childhood, and have also included people with mental and behavioral problems, who are both more likely to smoke and more likely to have low IQs, Weiser and his team noted. To better understand the smoking-IQ relationship, the researchers looked at 20,211 18-year-old men recruited into the Israeli military. According to the researchers, 28 percent of the study participants smoked at least one cigarette a day, around 3 percent said they were ex-smokers, and 68 percent had never smoked.

The smokers had significantly lower intelligence test scores than non-smokers, and the IQ steadily dropped as the number of cigarettes smoked increased, from 98 for people who smoked one to five cigarettes daily to 90 for those who smoked more than a pack a day. The researchers also compared IQs for 70 pairs of brothers in the group in which one brother smoked and the other did not. Again, average IQs for the non-smoking sibling were higher than for the smokers. The details appear in the journal Addiction. The findings suggest that lower IQ individuals are more likely to choose to smoke, rather than that smoking makes people less intelligent, Weiser and his team conclude.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Asat-sanga, bad association, ... the advertisers are asat-sanga: “Come on, smoke Kool cigarettes and make your brain cool.” The rascals! How can someone become cool by smoking cigarettes? By smoking fire one can become cool? Still, the advertisements are being presented, and the foolish people who are captivated by them smoke cigarettes to become cool. This is maya. ... “This advertisement is claiming I can become cool by smoking cigarettes. What is this nonsense?” Similarly, an intelligent person can understand maya's tricks and see the contradictions in all her allurements.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
“Dharma - The Way of Transcendence”
Chapter 10: “The Sword of Remembrance”