Maxie P. Diddly wrote:

> Hong Kong - A 78-year-old woman in northern China has eaten an
> estimated 10 tons of soil over the past 70 years, a news report said
> on Monday.

My brother-in-law stopped smoking about 20 years ago, having calculated
that, having consumed 600kg of the stuff, he had contributed enough
to the state's coffers. As for how many litres of wine and spirits
he has gone through so far, I have no idea. As a rough guess: between
10,000 and 20,000 litres (which is between 10 and 20 tons of the stuff).
And he is 89. Hmmmm... (should I cross-post this to sci.statistics?)
there seems to be a very significant correlation the the more you
have
consumed (of anything), the older you are likely to be. Bingo!