More bad news for the tobacco industry?

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More bad news for the tobacco industry?


BEIJING, March 21 (Reuter) - A teenager from north China who smoked 100
cigarettes in one sitting easily won a bet with a friend but paid with 
his life when his heart gave out, a state newspaper said. 

As a crowd of passers-by watched, the 19-year-old, identified only by his
surname Wu, suddenly lost his colour and collapsed after finishing a fifth
pack of Peony brand cigarettes, Tianjin city's Jin Wan Bao said in an edition seen on Thursday in Beijing. 

Wu, a construction worker, was declared dead soon after being rushed to
Tianjin's Air Force Maritime Village Hospital, it said. 

``The attending doctor determined that Mr Wu died of a heart attack 
brought on by excessive intake of cigarette smoke and acute nicotine 
poisoning,'' it said. 

Investigators found that Wu and his colleague Liu dreamed up the bet on
Monday to cure their boredom, deciding that whoever quit the smoking 
marathon first would pay for all the tobacco. 

``And so they began, alternating one cigarette each in their construction
shed, puffing up clouds to see who could smoke the most,'' the report 
said. 

But Wu, emboldened by a growing crowd of spectators, kept puffing away,
eventually smoking five cigarettes at a time by lashing them together 
before reaching the fatal 100 mark. 

After 40 cigarettes, Liu gave up and admitted defeat.


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