Leonard Nimoy's Smoking Caused COPD

Actor Leonard Nimoy started smoking as a teenager because he thought cigarettes were cool and believed advertisements presenting them as part of a doctor-recommended healthy lifestyle. By the time he moved to Los Angeles after high school, he smoked two packs a day, and nicotine addiction kept him smoking for 37 years. The birth of his first grandson persuaded him to quit in 1985, but doctors diagnosed him with COPD in 2013 after years of worsening breathing problems. Nimoy became an anti-smoking advocate before dying from complications of COPD in 2015.

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