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don't let it bothe<
yo
u. Oangllng a tire
lnches trom your nose and brlnglng
smok.e into your mouth and nose (stran–
gllng and chOklng lnnocent bystanders In
the process), as amokera do,
is
a lot more
silly. Just ask Klng James.
" TMre
artt
llera,
chronlc //ara. and fhen
ttrere
are
ttre ll)bacco compan/es...
-Ron
Beldeck. 1975
When
1t
comes to unequlvocal avarice,
1
must tlp my hat In unbellevlng amaze–
ment to the tobacco companles. For
a
long time, you'll remember, they denled
there was any connectlon between smok–
ing and canear (heart dlaease. or any–
thlng else). But a the evldence became
more and more ove<Whelming, in the
50s
and
60s,
no one -
1
mean
nobody -
could deny the facts. Not even the to–
bacco companleal But did this stop
them?
Of
course not. They gave us mir–
acle
IIHe<s;
in the lnteresl8 of fllt.hy lucre,
they gave us ads picturlng young couples
puffing clgarettes al a clear, sparkllng
mountain stream wlth blue skles up
above, eve<yone in love. To thls day. they
try to foíst off amoklng as a sociable
thing, something
lo
do among friends.
ls smoking really
a
sociable thing? ls
pollutlrlg your own alr and !he air of
others sociable? lt ...ms )ust the oppo–
site.
But the tobacco companlea, experts in
f•brica«ng tabricationa. have succeeded.
Many people do belleve there ls
a
con–
nection between smoking anda spa.rl<ling
mountafn stream
wlth
treah, Clear, blue
skles. These aame people would _also,
prob&bly, believe black ls Whlte and white
ls black
if
tMy
were told
so.
Thankf\Jity,
sorne
have gfven up smok–
Ing, and nonsmokera ere winning sorne
rlghts to aean air In publlc piaces. But
don·t think lhat !he tobacco lndustry is
lying down to the recen! challenges from
nonsmokers. They are alarmad (atleast a
little). They have spent all of this money
for ads palmlng off smoking
as
a socially
acceptable thlng. Now, more and more, a
young smoker on a plane, in
a
publlc
building, or atmoat anywhere he
goes.
ls
told he can·t smoke there. Beeause
ot
pressure from nonsmokera. smokin9 no
longar
seems
quite
so
attractfve.
Tobacco lnduatry representa«ves,
dal–
lar
signs
In their eyes, are livid. One·was
recently quoted In the Loo Angeles Times
as
saying: "Nonamoke<a may sea smok–
Ing
as
offenslve, but look at the olher
thlngs that occur that soma paople see as
offenslve - loud talk, eatlng garUe or
amelllng of perfume. We don't pass laws
forbldding the eatlng of garUe In public
places."
Such
a
statement ls
so
ludicrous and
Inane
it
hardly seems wor!hy
ot
comment.
butlet me )ust gfve here
a
brief threefold
repiy:
(1) 1
myself, l**)nany, cannot re–
can once In
(llY
llfetlme meeting a person
Who was
so
reeklng wlth garllc that
h~
offended me;
(2) 11 1
dld meet such a per–
son,
1
doubt that garllc breath has
49
known poisons
as
does clgarette smoke;
(3)
Just becauae there are people who
reek with garlic- doasn't Justily a smoker
poUuting nonsmokera' alr. Two wrongs
don't make a right,
do
lhe)l1
To
lhe
tobacco
people,
1t
ls money, not
morality or
truth
In advertislng, lhat is the
chief concetn. Besld...
lsn't
tobacco vital
lo the economy?
11
everyone gave up
smoking. the tobacco lndustry would go
broke and many people would be unem-
10
ployed - a problem, someone mlght cyn–
ically aay, second only lo unemployed
napalm manufacturers.
May never lady press his
lips,
hl• proffer'd /ove retuming,
WhomakH
a
fumace
of hismouth.
and kee¡n his chimney burning.
May HCh
trua
woman shun his sight.
lar fear hfslumes should choke her,
And nona but those who smoke them–
selves
ha va
klsses tora smoker.
-Anonymous
Now that 1 know the lacta, 1 can no
longe< be
so
char1table
to
amokers. laup–
pose
11
a
amoker wants
lo
ilo
out behlnd
!he blm to keep hls chimney bumlng,
that'a hla prerogatilre. But no amoke< hes
the
rlgllf
t o su&ject oonsmokers to hls
effluvia. Certalnly there
is
no gOOd reason
Why the lnnocent should have to auffer
tor amokera· sakes.
11
a
smoker want. to
keep one foot In the grave, lt's hla prob–
lem. But common sense says he has no
right aubjectlng others to the rlsks he
hlmself lawllllng to take.
Unfortunately. none ot us live In a vac–
uum. No one llves or dies to hlm$811.
What-
do
lnvarlebly affects othera.
So
it
iswlth smokera.
Ñ
a
resutt of lhe overWhelmlng evi–
dence 8galnst
ft, 1
would like to thlnk
everyone In the whole world would glve
up smoking. Forget it.
11
the pan truly
were mlghtler than the aword, people
would have glven
11
up long ago. For the
record, tobacco-lndustry profits thla year
are hlgher than ever before. The tobacco
people would say that's Kool. There la
atlll gold In them lhar weeds. and they are
stllllaughing all the way to the bank.
11
you
ata
a smoke<. maybe in gratitude
they wíll gfva you soma of thosa coupons
for your nextlung operation in "Marlboro
country,.. your local cancer ward. There
you can aee all of !hose masculina. rug–
ged. sunbumed, tatooed-all-over cow–
boya who roda lhe ranga with thelr red–
and-whlte crush-proof boxes In hand,
now emaclated and wasted In the1r
mlddle age. crytng out In paln and agony
In thelr death throes. ls that uslng hypar–
acare tactlca? That. my frlend, la
reel/ty
more otten than you reaJize. One men'a
smOke la hlaown polson. too.
Tl!ought for
ttre dey:
Nicotina, tound
only In tobacco. ls used commerclally ea
a
weed
klller. Maybe there ls a place lor
smokera, alter all. Invite some to your
next garden party.
Ouote for the day: "The clgaretta com:
panles have spent bllilons of doliera and
hall a century trytng to link smoking to
tM beeutlful things in lile • . • . What
smoking la really llnked to ls dlsebility and
death" (American Lung Assoclation).
You·ve come a long wey, babylln lhe
lut ten y..
rs.
lung canear among women
ha doubled. and, accordlng to the Amer–
Ican Lung Association ,
" a
pregnant
woman who smokes two packa
a
day
blocka the equivalen! of
40
percent ol the
oxygen aupply to the fetus.••• Pregnant
women who smoke have more stlll blrths,
spontaneous abortions and iow-welght
bable• than nonsmoking moth•ra.
•·
(These blbles don
't
come a long way, do
lhey?)
A
flnalwlsh foral/ nónsmokers: that !he
next camel you see
is
the
animal. not the
weed,
lhat you don't ever meet lhe Turk.
and lhat your last
GASP
ls not your
breath, but rather your local chapter of
Group Agalnst Smokers' Pollution.
O
the
facts
for
nonsmolcers
from the American Lung Association
• Cigarene smoke aHects
the
oonsmoker in ml.leh the
same
way
as
the
smoker.
• lnhaling second-hand smoke makes the heart beat !aster, the
blood
pres$ure
go
up, and the level of carbon monoxlde In the
biood
lncrease.
• There is more cadmlum in the smoke that drlfts off the burning end
ot
the clgarette than In the drag the smokll( takes. -Large doses of cad–
mium have
been
relatad to hypertension, chronlc bronchitis, and
em–
physema.
• Smoke from an ldling cigarette
contains even
more
tar
and
nocotine !han
an
inhalad
one.
• The amount of
C8l'bon
monoxide
in the
blood
o! oonsmo¡cers doubles in
a poorly ventllaled room filled with clgarette· smoke. Even outslde
!he
room, the lnhaled carbon monoxlde stays In the body tor three to tour
hours.
• The nonsmoker ls torced to breathe in smoke from the burning end of
!he
cigarette as
well
as the smoke exhaled by the smOker.
• Researchers have touhd that lung illness ls twlce as common in
young
children whose parents smoke at
home
compared
to
!hose
with
non–
smolóng
perents.
• Al1
estimaled
2
mlllion Americans are
seflSitive
lo tobacco smoke and
suffer smoke-caused asthma attacks.
• The U.S. Surgeon General has said, "Nonsmokers have as much rlght
to clean air and wholesome air as smokers have to their so-called rlght
to smoke, whlch
1
would redefine as
a
so-called rlght to pollute.
lt
ls l)lgh
time to ban smoking
from
all confinad publlc places such as restau–
rants. theaters. alrplanes. trains,
and
buses.
11
is time that
we
intll(pret
the
Bill
ol
Rlghts for the nonsmoker as well as t he smoi<ll(."
"1
advise you to switch to Folly Cigarettes. For
only
100,000
coupons you gel
a
new set of lungs. " .
WI!EK
EtiD~G
Jl!OVEMBER
¡,
197$