Why Quebec men are shorter than in the RoC and its further implications

Cigarettes have screwed up this country in more ways than are immediately obvious to the eye.

Last year smoking killed 3,600 Quebec males and 2,600 females. Quebec has 24 percent of Canada's population but 31 percent of Canada's lung cancer deaths.

Quebecers have long smoked more than other Canadians. Francophones smoke between 5-10% more than their anglo counterparts.

Smoking also causes lung cancer. But recent data proves that it causes another health problem.

A new study shows that boys who smoke throughout their teen years end up about an inch shorter than those who don't.

Quebec men smoke more and are shorter than men in the rest of Canada.

Although it's usually not mentioned in polite society - short stature is frequently linked to lower social status and more resentful attitudes. Shorter men earn less money and are considered less desirable to females.

So the toll smoking has taken on everyplace - but particularly Quebec - is massive. Smoking has not only orphaned children and caused countless painful deaths, but has also doomed Quebec's males to stunted growth and the stigma that comes along with it.

Quebec's men have also been the motor of separatism. I suggest someone study a possible height correlation between separatism and its supporters.

If health authorities want to prevent young people from starting smoking, they might consider a note reading: CIGARETTES CAUSE SHORTNESS OF STATURE.

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Notes from the study:
Boys who smoked did not gain as much body weight or height as boys who didn't smoke. For every 100 cigarettes per month increment in cigarette use, the boys were 0.7 cm shorter. If a boy is smoking about 10 cigarettes per day, or 300 per month, "in the end he'll be a little bit under one inch shorter than the boys who don't smoke," Ms. O'Loughlin said.


Smoking does not make teenage girls thinner but it will make boys shorter and skinnier, new Canadian research confirms.


In a finding that appears to prove, at least for boys, that mothers were right -- smoking will stunt your growth -- researchers who followed nearly 1,300 Montreal-area adolescents for five years found that a boy who smokes 10 cigarettes a day from age 12 to 17, or all through high school, will end up about an inch shorter than boys who do not smoke.