Basic HTML Version
Warnif!8!
Tobacco is
Hazardous tol6ur
Health
by
D. Paul Graunke
~:¡¡¡¡~~~!!:il
ritten more than
300 years before
the U.S. Surgeon
General warned
us about the dan–
gers of smoking,
the words of King
Ja mes I
(below)
and Tobias Venner
(see page
26)
seem aptly prophetic.
Yet, despi te thei r denuncia tions of
the obnoxious weed, the habits of
smoking and chewing tobacco flour–
is hed. And today , des pite an
enormous mountain of evidence
that implicates tobacco in the deaths
of hundreds of thousands annua lly,
hundreds of millions continue to in–
ha le and chew away their health
and lives on tobacco products.
In 1975 over 3.5 trillion cigarettes
were smoked worldwide, accord ing to
the U.S. Depa rtment of Agriculture.
This represented a gain ofalmost one
tri Ilion over the 1960-1964 yearly av–
erage. Department officials forecast
that cigarette smoking will continue
to ri se at a three to four percent
a nnua l rate because of population
growth and because tobacco is the
firstluxury ítem poor people buy.
Perhaps you use tobacco. If so.
then you a lready know the litany of
grim statistics and facts about the
consequences of your ha bit. And , of
course, it hasn' t stopped you.
That's pre tty much the way it has
been down through the centuries.
People have used tobacco in spite of
every medica! report, papal bull and
government edict designed to curb
its use. Historically, wherever it has
been introduced, it has quickl y
achieved widespread popularity.
Tobacco lnstantly Popular
The tobacco weed is the New
World's gift- or perhaps a better
word is curse- to the Old. Columbus
and o ther ea rly explorers were
a mazed to meet lndians who carried
The
PLAIN TRUTH July 1977
"A custom loathsome to the eye, harmful to the
brain, dangerous to the lungs . .. Herein is
not only a great vanity, but a great contempt
ofGod's goodgifts, that the sweetness ofman 's
breath, being a good gift of God, should be
wilfully corrupted by this stinking smoke.
"
James 1 of England
"Couoterblasr to Tobacco," 1604
23