Do Hobbits get Lung Cancer?

[Nazgûl-king]

I never thought of that, neither the books nor the films ever mention anyone getting lung cancer, maybe the Hobbits are immune to it.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

You know the so-called "Churchill syndrome"? People with that can smoke like a factory and nothing happens to them. Maybe the whole Hobbit race had this.

Or, maybe Old Toby cultivated some sort of pipeweed that was not harmful in any way.

(Gandalf and Saruman also were smoking quite a lot and we never see a scene like "Théoden, my friend, let us forget old *cough cough* sorry, Théoden, join me *cough cough cough* oh no, the Voice ain't working today. Worm, throw the Palantír on them at once!"
Though, Gandalf and Saruman were Istari - they could have had some resistance. But what about the Rangers? Well, they were Dúnedain, so maybe... The Dwarves? No problem, Dwarves are tough. Okay, so the only people who could have had problems would be the Breelanders. Like Bill Ferny. At least he was spitting all over the place. If it was due to the pipeweed, we don't know. But if yes, then that implies that sometimes smoking was not as pleasant. But that does not necessarily prove anything. Maybe his pipe was just a bad one.)

[Aganzir]

At least American Indians, who had been harvesting tobacco for a long time before the Europeans came, suffered less from the side-effects of tobacco than the Europeans. I don't know about Hobbits though- if I remember correctly, smoking pipeweed was a relatively new practice among them, so the immunity should have developed in a very short time.

But hobbits are quite tough. If even the Ring didn't affect them as strongly as it would have some other race, maybe smoking pipeweed caused no problem either.

[Mithalwen]

Hard as it may be to believe now but there was a time when cigarettes were sold almost as health products

http://indymotorspeedway.com/cigs/1930s.html


Tolkien was a great smoker and this was not regarded as anthing unusual. At the time the books were written the tobacco use would not have been remarkable. However to put a modern perspective on it Hobbits are "tough in the fibre" and like Numenoreans they don't seem prone to illness generally - premature deaths tend to be accidental.

But remember children, Elves don't smoke and they live forever and don't get wrinkles..... a lesson for us all?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

In the 1940s the link between smoking and lung cancer was little understood, and even what the medical research community may have suspected wasn't widely known outside. Tolkien's own doctor and fellow-Inkling 'Humphrey' Havard was himself a heavy smoker.

Remember also that Hobbits (and Tolkien) smoked pipes, which ordinarily do not involve inhaling and in fact pipe-smoking is not generally linked to lung cancer....just cancer of the mouth and lips. In any event, Tolkien himself for all his tobacco use lived to a ripe old age and ultimately died of a stomach ulcer. Cigarette smoking creates a very elevated risk of lung cancer, but it is not by any means automatic or guaranteed that a smoker will develop it!

[William Cloud Hicklin]

like Numenoreans they don't seem prone to illness generally - premature deaths tend to be accidental.

I'm not so sure- after all, both Hobbits and Dunedain were badly affected by the Great Plague.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hickli

I'm not so sure- after all, both Hobbits and Dunedain were badly affected by the Great Plague.

She said generally. Great Plague is Great Plague. Both the Hobbits and the Dúnedain were affected less than the other nations. After all, "Periannath survive, but suffer great loss." (Tale of the Years) And concerning the Dúnedain, I'll be careful. Most of the population of both Arnor and Gondor were "normal" Men, and in Gondor the Númenorean blood was far more weakened than in Arnor. In Arnor the Dúnedain were strongest in Arthedain, but Cardolan was the part which was affected the most. And no doubt there was some special aim, some will of Sauron that supported the death of the royal family in Gondor.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

True; but also the plague is said to have decreased in virulence as it spread northward. This is in fact what happens in most RW epidemics, like the Black Death: the most deadly mutations of the disease agent tend to kill quickly, thereby depriving themselves of hosts.



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It is also said that in the Shire in the annus mirabilis 1420 "no one was ill," which implies that in ordinary years some Hobbits were ill. Gaffer Gamgee suffered from arthritis. While the Shire is in many ways idyllic, it was no Lorien.

And Lotho does have pimples!