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We could also (but most of us would not have the courage to) add Medinas Yisrael as one of the greatest Macharivei Torah in recent history and in the present. ViKal Lihavin, despite the welfare state that is gradually disappearing in there.
Those who live in Israel and benefit from them do owe them hakaras hatov for that; but let’s be quite clear: An American Jew owes hakaras HaTov, gratitude, to the United States of America, under whose protection, and on whose land, that Jew lives. That same America Jew owes NOTHING to the State of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Turkey, or any other foreign sovereignty, unless that person has benefited from that State.
The comparison to food is a bit incongruous. Smoking, unlike eating, when performed as directed, is deadly. Eating is healthy and, in fact, vital, when performed as directed.
That doesn’t mean that over-eating is healthy or justifiable. But since, unlike food, even the first cigarette is unhealthy, smoking is, therefore, the clear “bad guy” of the two.
Also, flatulence aside, what you eat will have no effect on anyone else. What you smoke, however, will have an effect, and can even cause physical harm to someone else, aside for making them uncomfortable.
I don’t know what office those girls worked in, but I think the proper reaction is to ask him to stop, and, if he doesn’t, to avoid the steady second-hand smoke exposure by quitting on health grounds (and get unemployment, BTW, presumably, though I am simply guessing since I do not know the laws).
For all the guys who think they’ll stop when they date, once the fantasy wears off and/or any pressures kick in, the smoking will be extremely tempting, and I know of people who try (laughably unsuccessfully, of course) to hide their smoking from their wives, and others whose wives simply have to put up with it (with all the discomfort and dangers to themselves and their kids therein) because their addicted husbands won’t help themselves.
Hashem Yishmor.