Pipe smoking does have health risks

Dear Annie: My dad has started to smoke pipes, and I am worried. His dentist told him to stop because of gum cancer. He says he doesn’t inhale so he can’t get addicted or develop gum cancer.

How can I get him to stop? Can he get some sort of cancer by smoking pipes? – Concerned Kid in Kansas

Dear Kansas: According to the American Cancer Society, pipe smokers have an increased risk of heart disease, stroke and chronic lung disease, along with dying from cancers of the lung, throat, esophagus, larynx, pancreas, and colon and rectum. However, you cannot stop your father from puffing away if he refuses. Give him the information, tell him you love him, and then try to steer clear when he’s smoking.

Dear Annie: “Grieving in the Midwest” said her 33-year-old daughter-in-law recently died from a drug overdose and her son already has a new girlfriend. Maybe I watch too many crime dramas, but when a young woman in a rocky marriage dies of a drug overdose, the husband is a prime murder suspect. – Suspicious in Kentucky

Dear Kentucky: Yes, that struck us, too, but we’re not the police, and we assume if there was something to investigate, they would have done so.