Dear Ann Landers,
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. 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 column from Sep-tember 1916.

Dear Readers,
Please forgive this personal reference, but I must share with you, my millions of friends, what is on my mind and in my heart. A few weeks ago, our family gathered in Omaha to bury one of the dearest, most gentle people I have ever known. He was David Brodkey, married for 43 years to our eldest sister, Helen. Dave was a delight. We adored him. He was meticulous about detail, the perfect choice to take charge of any family project. Dependable. Industrious. Thorough. "Integrity" was his middle name. Dave cherished Helen, and well he might. She was a devoted wife, the beauty of the family, a talented pianist, a superb cook and a leader in community affairs. But Dave, the Perfectionist, the man who did everything right, did one thing wrong. He smoked at least two packs of cigarettes every day for 30 years. This senseless addiction deprived him of the joy of seeing his grandchildren marry. And it will deny those who loved him the pleasure of his beautiful presence. So often I have heard smokers say, "Well, you have to die from some-thing." True. But please, friends, if you can help it, die from something else, and don't rush the event. Lung cancer is a horrible way to go. While non-smokers, too, die from lung cancer, the evidence is ir-refutable that cigarette smoking does cause lung cancer. The more we study it, the more certain we become. Smokers are the leading candi-dates for this dreaded disease and heart trouble and emphysema as well. One out of every four Americans alive today will have some form of cancer during his lifetime. One out of six people who get cancer will die from it unless, of course, we leam more about how to prevent this scourge and how to cure it. The economic cost of cancer in our country is $20 billion a year, to say nothing of the agony and suffering. The life of every person who reads this column has been touched in some way by cancer. It is the second biggest killer in the United States. Almost the last words Dave uttered to his wife were these: "I should have listened to you years ago when you begged me to stop smoking." But like so many others, Dave believed cancer happens to other people. And now, all you wives who are nagging your husbands and all you husbands who are pleading with your wives to throw away those filthy killers and all you young people who are turning your healthy pink lungs into tar pits at 65 cents a pack, for God's sake, for the sake of those who love you, stop smoking today. Do it for yourself. Do it for the people who care about you. We can conquer cancer in our lifetime if enough people will join hands in this effort. Thank you so much and God bless. -Ann Landers Addictions are not necessarily chemical. If you see yourself or someone you love in the next letter, please call Gamblers Anonymous: