The Composite Corpse

The Composite Corpse

We normally think of a dead body as one dead body. One thing killed the body: cause of death in the corner’s report. One person is responsible in the case of a crime. Case closed.

The perfect crime is not solved. The person responsible is not found.

How then can thousands of people be killed each year by people who are clearly identified? The killers kill only a little bit of many persons.

Each cigarette shortens a smoker’s life by about 11 minutes. There is no safe level of tobacco smoke exposure. This is a matter for public health.

The result of selling cigarettes to nicotine addicted persons is well enough known that the result is premeditated: 11 minutes lost per cigarette; 10 years off a normal life time.

Now to catch the murderer. We know the time. Take 10 years off the end of a life time. Take 20 years off the start; before a life time smoker gets fully addicted to nicotine.

That leaves a 50-year market in which to sell cigarettes to an addicted person. Addiction now drives the sales. Some 70% of smokers would like to quit.

How many cigarettes are needed to kill the equivalent of one composite body?

Fifty years x 365 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes = 26,280,000 minutes.

Now 26,280,000 minutes/11 minutes =                   2,389,091 cigarettes.

And 2,389,091/20 =                                                    119,454 packs.

And 119,454/10 =                                                         11,945 cartons.

And 11,945/50 =                                                                239 cases.

No one person can smoke that many cigarettes. A pack-a-day smoker would need to buy 365 packs x 50 years = 18,250 packs; 1,825 cartons; 36.50 cases.

Therefore a minimum of 239 cases/36.5 cases or 6.5 (7) pack-a-day smokers would be needed to buy this many cigarettes. Half would be expected to die early enough to result in a composite one-life-time loss of life.

The sale of 239 cases per year kills one equivalent person (20 cases per month).

It takes a lot of cigarettes to kill the equivalent of one person. It is a messy way to kill people. There are over 30 times as many made ill. Tobacco companies can avoid liability until this statistical, composite, public health, view is commonly accepted: Sell 20 cases per month and pre-meditatively kill one equivalent person.   

Until then, half of all life time smokers will continue to die from tobacco related causes.This does not include those who die or are made ill from exposure to their second and third hand smoke.