Our Reader to Reader Question of the Week:

Dear Readers,
, the only disease discussed is cancer? Why is it that no one ever brings up emphysema? People who smoke cigarettes will get emphysema sooner or later. I am well acquainted with all the stages of this disease. My grandmother, who was otherwise a very healthy woman, died a slow and painful death from emphysema brought on by years of smoking. My stepfather will die the same way. He is now tethered to an oxygen tank that is his con-stant companion. It is the only way he can keep his windpipe open. My mother, who is also a smoker, is in the early stages of emphy-sema. She has a terrible cough that gets worse every year. Younger people who smoke boast that they can jog several miles and never get short of breath. They don’t understand that the cells in their lungs are mutating. For my sake and theirs, will you please print another letter on this subject? -Alaska Dear Alaska: It is not necessarily true that all smokers will develop emphysema. Not enough studies have been done to confirm this. The surgeon general classifies bronchitis and emphysema together as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (C.O.P.D.). Before smok-ing became common, these were rare diseases. Now C.O.P.D. is the fourth-ranking cause of death in the United States. The IIesi hi An Landers According to the American Lung Association, smoking is responsi-ble for 82 percent of the C.O.P.D. deaths in the United States. (The remaining 18 percent are caused by air pollution, environmental fac-tors such as dust and asbestos and a rare hereditary condition.) The message is clear and irrefutable. Smoking is a crippler and a killer. My family has not been exempt from this problem. Here’s a columnfrom Sep-tember 1916.