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one
ls
by
Ron Beldeck
8
"Tobacco drieth the brain
1
dimmeth the sight,
vitiateth
the
smell, hurteth
the
stom–
ach, destroyeth the con–
coction, disturbeth the
bumors and spirics, corrup–
teth the breath, induceth a
trembling of the
limbs,
ex–
siccateth the windp ipe,
lungs, and liver, annoyeth
the
milt,
scorcheth
the
heart,
and
causeth
the blood
to
be
adjusted."
- Tobias Venner, 1620
W
rltten more than
300
years
be–
rore lhe
U.
S. Surgeon General
.warned ua about the dangers
of smoking, lhe words of Tobías Venner
seem aplly prophellc. Bul
11
the genU&–
man who penned lhls quotation were
alive loday, he would undoubledly add
to
the
list:
"Polluteth thy neighbo<'s air and
ennoyeth hlm greatly."
The wicked w...S
is
alm
very
much
wi1h
us, and lt hu become one of the "bum–
lng" issués of our day. There has been In
recent yea,., as
1
myself dlscovered, an
lncreaslng groundswell of opposilion
among nonsmokers, who, In facl, oul–
number smokel'l. Thlt lncreaslngly vocal
nonsmoklng ma)or1ty ls aaying, In etfecl,
"We won'l put up wlth smokers' pollu–
tants a sDiy mllllmeter k>.ngerl" (No, they
don'l wanl lo meel the Turl<; and, yes,
please, though
h'l
lough, pul
~ur
Mu–
riels
down.)
Aft., examining the facts,
one has to edmlt lhal nonsmokershave,
lf
nol an alr-tlghl cate, al leasl an air–
polluledone.
"Smokers and nonsmokers cannot be
equally free In !he sama raí/wsy car-
rlage."
·
- G&Of'liS Bemard
Shsw
Some monlhs ago, 1wrote a
short
ar–
ticle entitled "Contusiona of a Nonsmo–
ker." In 11, 1sald: "1 don'! en)oy going lo a
restaurant or ridlng public lran.sportation
and having lo b<eathe bíllowing clouds ol
smoke. But 11
lt
means so much to
smokers, 11 11 glves them
so
much plea–
sure, l'llgladly sutler for their sake."
1
recei~ed
a number of lellers ]ustly cl'it–
lcal of thls statement. A woman from St.
Louis wrote: "Why should lnnocent
people sutler lO< the ignorance of others?
People who do not smoke are constandy
being mede to sutfer, physlcally, frO<O the
harrnful etfects of secondhend smoke."
enclosing a pamphlet trom the Amer1can
Lung Assoclation, she concluded: "1 wish
you would
do
an '1lrtlcle on the lnnocent
people who do ·autfer lor their sake' (the
smokers)."
Another letter cama from the Kenosha
(Wisconsln) chapter of G.A.S.P.- thatls,
Group Against Smokers' Pollutlon . They
wrote:
"A
bunch
o1
onions to nonsmo·
kers who say ae
~u
did that you will
'gladly autfer tor smokers' sake.' The
GAS.P. chapters around theWOf!d are in
the process of educatlng
the
public
to
the
aerious lmpllcatlona
ot
seeondhand
smoke.'' Then followed a descrlptlon of
soma of the 49 known polsons In tobacco
smoke, soundlng llke a scenarlo for
chemical or.blologlcal germ wartare.
Alll can say to the G.A.S.P. chapters of
the world (and others who wrote me) la, 1
repent In sackclolh and ashes. When
1
sald
1
would gladly sutler for thelr
(smoke<a') sake,
1
meant lt somewhat fa–
calloully, for the truth ls,
1
reelly don' t
en]oy autfering.
And
1
guen the state–
ment wae made out of a somewhat
ln–
genuous, misdirected sympalhy for
smokel'l.
1
mean, if anyonedeserves sym–
pathy, l$0'1 it smokers? He<e are people
who know smoking ls bad lor them; they
have heard the statlstics (someone once
sald that smoking has proven to be, wlth–
out a doubt, a leadlng cause of statlstlca);
they know smoking is killlng them. They
lose thelr wlnd, can'! tasie their food, and
hack and cough all the time. Reeklng
wlth tobaec:o. thelr mouth resernblea a
blrdc:age; eventuatfy they stand
a
good
chane• of having most of thefr lung tlssue
depositad on the operatlng table. But
they smoke anyway because
of
the plea–
aure .end enjoyment it glves them
(so
l 'm
told), regardless or the consequences,
regardlesa of the facts. Now that d&–
_servea sympathy.
Why anyone wlth the intelllgence lo
add two and two would want to amoke
hal lo ba
a
rlddle wrapped In
a
mystery
lnslde an enigma. Can lhe pleasure pos–
slbly
be
worth
all the suftering and ill–
etfec1s on one's health? Meanwhlle, the
tobacco companies are laughlng all the
way to the bank.
1t
ls bad enough what smokers do to
themselvea, but more alarmlng
fa
what
they do to lnnocent bystande<s.
ff
you are
a nonsmoker, exposed lo secondhand
smoke, the next sectlon expta\na what la
In
lt
foryou.
"Smoking
is
a
shocklng thlng - blowlnp
$1110ke out
of
our moulhs lnto other
,.oppe's
moulhs, eyes and
noses.
and
havlnp
the
samelhlng
dorNI
to
us."
- Samusl
Johnson,
1773
From "Secondhand Smoke - Talle a
Look al the Facts," a pemphlet publlshed
by 'the American Lung Assoclatlon , we
read : "Tobacco smoke is a very complex
mixture of gases, llquids, and particles.
There are hundreds of chemlcal com–
pounda In tobacco and hundredo more
created when tobacco bums.
"Some of the most hazardouo com–
pounds are tar. nicotine. carbon monox·
lde, níttogen dioxide, ammonla, benzene,
IO<maldehyde, and hydrogen aulphide.
And dozens of others. Any one alone can
assault the body and cause lrouble. To–
gelher, they make smoking the menace
1t
ls.
"Even when a smoker Inhales, re, ..
searchers have calculated that two-thlrds
of the srnoke from the bumlng clgarette
goeslnto the environment....
" The fuclnating factls that sldestream
smo'ke - the smoke frO<O the bumlng end
- hu hlgh., eoncentrations ol noxoous
cO<Opounds than !he malnstteam smoke
Inhalad by the smoker. Some atudies
show there ls twice as mueh tar and nico–
tina In sldestream smoke compared to
malnstream. And three times as much of
a compound called 3·4 benzpyrene,
whlch la suspected as a canc.,·ceuslng
agent.
Flve
times as much cerbon mon–
oxlde, which robs the blood o! oxygen.
And
50
times as much ammonla."
The current allowable concentrstion of
carbon monoxlde In lndustry
is
50
p,p,m.
(parú
per mllllon). The !=éderal Afr
Oual–
lly Standards fO< the ouWde alr ls an
average of 9 p.p.m. Yet one atudy
ahowed lhat "smoking seven clgarettes
WEEK ENDINO NOVEMBER 1, 1975