Everyone's heard of someone who started smoking at 16 and lived until they were 95, always smoking.
Everyone's heard of someone who started smoking at 16 and died of lung cancer at 30.
Everyone knows there are countless evidence-based scientific studies that prove smoking kills people, and that smokers die at much higher rates/younger ages than non-smokers.
How about skipping the rumours and biased anecdotes and instead finding and quoting properly-conducted, peer-reviewed, aircrew-relevant studies using the scientific method to reach conclusions? Does the one above meet these criteria? Can't find another one? If not, then there is no scientific conclusion to be made yet.
Finding lots of anecdotal support online? Great! Then keep it in the rumours department, right where it is, until a valid scientific conclusion can be stated.
However, it seems to be common sense, and there are plenty of valid scientific studies proving much of this, that the longer one drives the body through the night and misses sleep, messing with their circadian rhythm, eating poor quality airline and hotel food, drinking during layovers, feeling tired even after sleeping, enduring the air and radiation of airline travel, stressing the body and brain with fatigue, waking too early, not sleeping until too late, or not sleeping at all, while using sleeping pills or alcohol to "aid" rest, while dealing the the stress of a flying career, industry uncertainty, airline management, rostering abuse, a lack of leave, missed holidays/birthdays/anniversaries/family landmark moments/etc., and hoping to time the housing and stock markets properly.....well, the longer one has all of these work- and pre-retirement-related factors in their lives, it just seems to make sense that all of these things would shave years off their future rather than add to it.
Last edited by Iron Skillet; 10th Jun 2012 at 01:29.