DR. WALLACE: I love smoking and don't want to quit because all of my family are smokers, and there is so much smoke swirling around our home anyway. I'm 18 and just graduated high school and have started a decent job that pays really well in our local area about 10 miles away. I have my own car that I use for transportation that's an old vehicle but a surprisingly reliable one. One thing I've noticed recently is that I've stopped smoking in my car on the way to work and the way home.

I'll confess to you that I do use my breaks at work to sneak a smoke here and there, but then once I'm home after work, it's like a "smoke-fest" at our home since it's a big house and six adults live there, including some of my aunts and uncles as well as my parents. I do the bulk of my smoking at home when talking with my relatives after dinner.

What can I do to maintain my health? I won't encourage anyone to smoke, but when it comes to me, it appears the die is cast. So, to balance this and also to feed my desire to become a healthier person, I've started exercising regularly and I even eat a diet that is much healthier these days than I ever did as a child growing up. Since I already feel that I'm destined to remain a smoker, I figure that I should try to be as healthy as I can in the other parts of my life to cut down my risks. — Aim To Be a Healthy Smoker, via email

AIM TO BE A HEALTHY SMOKER: My opinion is going to be one that is familiar to you if you've read this column for any length of time, and it is that you should quit smoking as soon as you possibly can. The good news is that at your age, permanent damage likely has not been done. Many people who smoked at a young age, even for a few years or so and then quit, have gone on to live long, healthy lives. I personally know some of these people myself. The human body has many miraculous capacities, and one appears to be that early lung damage can be cleared and healthy lungs can be regenerated if damaging smoke is avoided completely before it's too late!

It's excellent that you are now a young adult who is taking an active interest in your personal health, and the exercise you get and the healthy diet you eat both are great starts in that direction. But to both smoke daily and to be in an environment with an extreme amount of secondhand smoke swirling about, your body soon won't have much of a chance to avoid the onset of gradual, permanent damage.

Since you have a good job already, one piece of advice I would suggest to you is to consider seeking to find a compatible roommate or two and then seek to find a local home, condo or apartment where you could live in a smoke-free environment. Just be sure your new roommates are nonsmokers! If this might be a possibility for you, then I do think you can soon give up smoking even though you say you like it now. Once you truly realize how incompatible smoking is with your desire to be a healthy person, you'll likely start to find the will to quit. Nobody is ever "destined" to be a smoker. We all have free will, and even though quitting smoking is difficult, it absolutely can be done.

DOES HE STILL OWE MY MOM SUPPORT MONEY?

DR. WALLACE: I'm a girl who is 15 and haven't seen my dad for over eight years. My sister and I live with our mom, and she's always telling us that our father still owes our family a lot of child support money.

And since he does not ever see us, does that mean that he does not have to pay for us? My little sister said one of her friends at school said our dad does not have to pay child support for us because he never, ever sees us in person anymore. Is this true? — The Older of Two Sisters, via email

THE OLDER OF TWO SISTERS: A father's obligation to pay child support does not depend on whether he visits his children or not. It's a court-ordered obligation that he legally owes. Since he's your parent, the laws of our country state that he should be partially financially responsible for helping to pay for your upbringing.

It's quite sad that some fathers do not follow through on their responsibilities, especially when it comes to their children. In your case, it may be possible for your mother to seek out legal advice to see what options are available to her that may be able to reclaim some or all of what your father owes your family.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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