system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do some cigarette smokers end up with huge health complications (Artificial larynx, Tracheotomy, etc.) while other heavy smokers seem to have been smoking for years with minimal complications?

I fell like this is gonna get down voted to hell, but I'm honestly curious as to why some people die from lung cancer, or end up having to have tracheotomies due to heavy smoking, (like in those anti smoking commercials where all those people talk about how hard it is living with a stoma in their neck) but other heavy smokers (that smoke multiple packs a day) seem to just have a raspy voice or an occasional heavy cough. Is it just sheer luck as to who gets horrible side effects and who doesn't? Or were the people with artificial larynx just smoking a lot more cigarettes, over a much longer period of time? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!
gpt
Statistics. Smoking does not guarantee health complications, it only increases your risk of them.

Who ends up with health complications is a matter of environmental factors and genetics. A light smoker might end up with lung cancer while a heavy smoker has only a light cough. But make no mistake - on a global level, the heavy smoker is, on average, much worse off than the light smoker. But there will always be exceptions.

But we don't know all that much about how genetics and environmental factors affect this. So to modern healthcare, it basically is luck that determines who ends up with complications and who doesn't. With statistics though, we can see that smokers are on average worse off than those who don't smoke, and heavy smokers versus light smokers.

You should also be aware of perception biases - the heavy smoker who stays healthy is a surprise, so you're going to hear stories about them - it's newsworthy and interesting, and you're more likely to remember that tidbit of information. But you don't hear about the 100 other smokers that died of lung cancer, because that isn't news, it's what's expected, and you're also less likely to remember that information because it isn't that interesting.