The cigarette industry is peddling a deadly weapon. It is dealing in people’s lives for financial gain.
- Robert F. Kennedy
Most of us, even those who choose to smoke, are aware of the serious health dangers related to smoking cigarettes. Smoking has killed more people in the United States alone than the number of Americans killed in battle or who died of war-related diseases in all wars ever fought by this nation. Tobacco kills; we have known this for generations. Amazingly enough, this knowledge has not stopped the cigarette habit from becoming an actual epidemic, one which happens to be growing at 2.1 percent per year. This is faster than the growth of our world population! Over 1 billion people now smoke, consuming about 5 trillion cigarettes per year (an average of more than one-half pack per person per day).
It has long been known that tobacco causes more death and suffering among adults than any other toxic material in our environment. William Chandler, in his booklet Banishing Tobacco published by the Worldwatch Institute, states, “No avoidable condition claims more adult lives than tobacco addiction. Between 2 million and 2.5 million smokers die worldwide each year from heart disease, lung cancer, and emphysema – smokers’ disease, as it is called – caused by their addiction. Additional thousands die in fires caused by cigarettes and from cancers caused by tobacco consumed as snuff or chew. Almost one-fifth of all U.S. deaths can be traced to cigarette smoke.” In some developing countries, the epidemic of smoking-related disease is already of such magnitude as to rival even infectious disease or malnutrition as a public health problem.
In addition to nicotine, which is highly addictive, cigarette smoke contains hundreds of mutagens, carcinogens and roughly 4,000 other chemical compounds, including carbon monoxide and radioactive polonium. Many of these chemicals are used in the processing of the tobacco and in the cigarette paper. These chemicals attack the lungs and circulate throughout the bloodstream, causing clogging of the arteries and cancer in the internal organs. Fifteen to 30 percent of all heart attacks in the U.S. are caused by smoking. Fortunately however, the risk of heart attacks does diminish rapidly in ex-smokers, approaching that of nonsmokers within one year after they quit.
What about those who choose not to smoke but are still assaulted by other people’s second-hand cigarette smoke? Consider the fact that a smoker inhales only 4 percent of the total smoke produced by a cigarette. The other 96 percent pollutes the air, the environment, and other people’s bodies with 50 times the amount of carcinogens than the smoker inhaled. It is now thought that involuntary exposure to cigarette smoke causes more cancer deaths than any other pollutant in our environment. A former U.S. Surgeon General reported evidence that non-smokers can be prone to lung disease simply from being exposed to secondhand smoke. Those who must inhale the smoke of others’ cigarettes are perhaps 3 times more likely to die of lung cancer than they would normally be otherwise. Children with parents who smoke experience higher rates of respiratory illness, including colds, influenza, bronchitis, asthma, and pneumonia. It has also been found that parents who smoke may be responsible for retarding the physical and intellectual development of their children by exposing them to the secondhand smoke of their dangerous habit.
William Chandler also points out, “…Nor have governments assumed their traditional role in protecting public health by acting decisively to reduce tobacco’s threat. They move swiftly to remove from the market unsafe medicines. They conduct paramilitary operations to destroy fields of marijuana or opium, but not tobacco, a far deadlier crop. They pay for expensive cleanup operations to remove toxic chemicals from the human environment. But not only do they fail to take these actions for tobacco, which is often more deadly to users and innocent – or passive – victims, they even support efforts to stabilize the tobacco industry. This sad state of affairs is possible both because the tobacco industry itself is so strong and because the opposition to tobacco is so weak. Health advocates in general have not insisted that governments take appropriate action. They have relied instead on informational programs alone to solve the problem.”
Whose side is our government on? Our elected officials make pronouncements, organize conferences, and publicize research about the dangers of tobacco, while the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has supported tobacco prices with nearly $5 billion in loans to tobacco growers! The USDA also promotes the tobacco industry by aiding them with crop inspection, marketing news, and research services. These services and handling of the loans cost taxpayers $54 million in 1978. In 1979, over $339 million of our tax money was allocated by our elected officials for USDA tobacco programs, which include price supports, export assistance to the Third World, and sending tobacco to other countries under the heading of “food aid.” In addition, federal grants are made to international agencies that encourage tobacco production. Our government, using our tax dollars, has helped make tobacco products, and U.S. tobacco technology a major American export to less developed countries. At a time when they are striving for political and economic independence, the developing nations are entering into a new form of life-threatening bondage – addiction to smoking.
Very basically, this means that the hard-earned tax dollars of non-smokers and smokers alike are literally subsidizing the growth of the tobacco industry, perpetuating worldwide cigarette addiction and helping to expand the quantity of noxious second-hand smoke that all of us are continually being poisoned by!
Not only does smoking tobacco have a detrimental effect upon our health and the environment, but so does growing and producing it. Tobacco production is ecologically unsound for a number of reasons. It diverts labor from more important crops at crucial times. It demands resources, such as firewood used in “flue-curing,” that Third World countries cannot afford to waste. Each year, approximately 20,000 square miles of forest land are cut down for use as fuel for curing the tobacco. Furthermore, when tobacco is raised as a crop, it depletes nitrogen from the soil in which it was grown 11 times more than a food crop. Other valuable nutrients are also depleted from the soil — much more than would take place from growing food. In numerous Third World countries, land is used for tobacco which could well be used to grow food! It is estimated that if the land now being used for raising tobacco were planted with grain it would be sufficient to feed 10 to 20 million people. What has happened to our priorities?
The public knows the dangers of smoking cigarettes. Nevertheless, large numbers of people still choose to start smoking while others continue the habit. Besides the fact that nicotine is as highly addictive as heroine, there seem to be other factors behind the motivation to smoke.
Multi-national tobacco companies entice local governments of Third World countries by promising them an array of economic benefits for encouraging tobacco production. As a result of the extensive marketing and advertising efforts of large tobacco conglomerates, the Third World has acquired a taste for cigarettes. Faced with diminishing sales in developed countries, the tobacco industry has identified the people of the Third World as a vast untapped market for their deadly product. To create a demand for cigarettes, an aggressive advertising campaign – in most cases unhindered by restrictions – has been launched to convince less privileged consumers in Third World countries that smoking enhances virility, symbolizes success, and provides tasty refreshment. The ideas and copy for these ads, tailored to exploit the world’s less privileged, are often developed here in the U.S. Once again, selfish interests create profit for the few at the expense of many.
Look at the images portrayed by the media. Notice the ever-present, insidious advertising used by the tobacco industry to “push” their murderous product. The tobacco industry wages expensive and brilliant media warfare, clouding our minds to the grim facts of nicotine addiction. They consciously target their audience so as to start them on the habit as young as possible. The clever “social engineering” of the tobacco industry has created generations of addicts and has cost millions of lives. Have you noticed that most images portrayed in cigarette advertisements depict people who are laughing, having fun, and are in great demand by the opposite sex? What about that macho, rugged, all-American guy, the Marlboro Man?
The movie industry has not helped to curb the smoking epidemic. They are continually producing motion pictures casting actors and actresses who portray cool, sexy, sophisticated, intelligent, mysterious, and rough and tough characters, a number of which happen to smoke.
It is amazing that so many of the habits we have come to accept as being a normal part of our daily lives are those which can have such detrimental effects upon our own personal health, the health of others around us, and the environment we live in. It is time to open our eyes to this fact and take responsibility!
Things You Can Do To Make A Difference:
* Smoking is no less than a “socially acceptable form of suicide.” If you smoke, you may want to re-evaluate the personal as well as the environmental impact of that choice. Consider making changes, not only for yourself, but for everyone and everything concerned.
* If you live with a loved one who smokes, when and if it is appropriate, gently remind and urge them to consider the effects of what they are doing. Help support them, if they are willing, to make the necessary changes. If they are unwilling to change, consider asking them to smoke outside, so as to not expose others to the dangers of their habit.
* We must insist that our politicians help tobacco farmers kick the crop without suffering economic penalties.
* Support all legislative efforts for non-smokers’ rights in all public areas. If people choose to smoke at the expense of their own health, it is their business. However, it becomes a concern when those who choose not to smoke are exposed to the dangers of that addiction also.
* Television has been free of tobacco advertising since the 1970s. It is time for magazines to kick the habit and be liberated from their dependency on ads from the world’s biggest drug pushers. Write to various magazines to express your dissatisfaction with the ad space they sell to cigarette companies. If you feel strongly enough about this issue, you may even choose to cancel your subscription with a letter, telling the publishers why you chose to do so.
For Further Information Contact:
* Americans For Nonsmokers’ Rights – 2530 San Pablo Ave. Suite J, Berkeley, CA 94702 (415) 841-3032. ANR is a national non-profit public interest organization committed to protecting the rights of nonsmokers to smoke-free air.
* Action On Smoking And Health (ASH) – 2013 H St. NW, Washington D.C., 20006 (202) 659-4310. ASH is national tax-exempt organization solely concerned with the problems of smoking. It serves as the legal action arm of the antismoking community.
* Doctors Ought To Care (DOC Tobacco Archive And International Resource Center) – 5510 Greenbriar, Houston, TX 77005 713-798-7729. DOC is international non-profit organization to educate the public, especially young people, in refreshing ways about the major preventable causes of poor health and high medical costs. Write or call for information or membership.
* Smokefree Educational Services - 375 South End Ave. Suite 32F, New York, NY 10280 (212) 912-0960. Fighting for the right to live and work in a smoke-free environment and to prevent tobacco companies from targeting children.
* Stop Teenage Addiction To Tobacco (STAT) – 121 Lyman St. #210, Springfield, MA 01103 (413) 732-7828. STAT is a non-profit organization committed to reducing tobacco use among children and adolescents.
* American Cancer Society – 1599 Clifton Road, NE, Atlanta, GA, 30329-4251 (800) ACS-2345. Offers information about tobacco-related cancers, smoking cessation programs, and epidemiological factors related to smoking.
* American Lung Association – 1740 Broadway, New York, NY 10019 (212) 315-8700. Offers information about tobacco-related chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, smoking and pregnancy, and smoking cessation programs.
* Booklets:Worldwatch Paper #68, Banishing Tobacco, by William U. Chandler andWorldwatch Paper #18, Cutting Tobacco’s Toll, by Erik Eckholm. Both of these booklets are published by and available from Worldwatch Institute, 1776 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036. Booklets are $4 each.
