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word to describe the annua l dea th
to ll [in Bri ta in]"
(Smoking and
Hea!th Now,
p. 10).
Cigarettes a re the chief cause of
lung cancer, which kills over 36,000
peopl e in the United K ingd om
every year, according to the Health
Ed ucation Council. They are also an
important cause of chronic bron–
chitis, a disease which ki lls over
30,000 people in the United King–
dom every year.
In Aust ra lia, over 40,000 people a
year die from diseases associated
w i t h c iga r e tt e
smoking.
Th e U.S. De-
gen cr itica! to proper growth and
development. They pass nicotine
and carbQn monoxide through the
bloods tream to the fetus. Con–
seq uently. chi ld ren of smoking
mothers tend to be born under–
weight, underdeveloped, and more
vulne rable to illness. The Nat iona l
Children's Bureau in Britain has
fou nd tha t babies of women who
smoke d uring pregnancy have a 30
percent higher incidence of dea th
just after birth than babies born to
nonsmoking mothers.
.
....
States. and its sale a big business
and major source of tax revenue in
ma ny countries. In the Uni ted
States a lone. fede ral and excise
taxes on tobacco products yield
nearly
$6
billion in revenue ayear.
To be su re, there was a n uproar
when the
Report ofthe Surgeon Gen–
eral's Advisory Committee on Smok–
ing and Hea!th
was published in
1964. There was a decline in smok–
ing in the Uni ted States from 523.9
billion cigarettes in 1964 to 5 11.2
billion in 1965.
In the decade
following the Su r–
par tme n t
o f
Health , Educa–
tion and Welfare
ca ll s c igare tt e
smoking the lead–
ing cause of the
600,000 deaths a
year s t emmi n g
fr om co ronary
hea rt d isease,
72 ,000 deat h s
from lung cancer
''Tobacco drieth the brain, dimmeth the sight,
vitiateth the smell, hurteth the stomach, destroy–
eth the concoction, disturbeth the humors and
spirits, corrupteth the breath, induceth a tremb–
ling of the limbs, exsiccateth the windpipe, lungs,
and liver, annoyeth the milt, scorcheth the heart,
and causeth the blood to be adjusted.
"
Tobias Venner, 1620
geon G enera l's
report more tha n
ten mi llion smok–
ers gave up
thei r habit. The
actua l number of
smoke rs kept de–
clining unti l 197 1.
(Yet the number
of c igarettes
smoked rebound–
ed to new highs
in 1966 and suc-
and 25,000 deaths
fr om chron ic
bronchi tis and emphysema.
Nonsmokers and Bab les SuHer
As if the harm smokers do to them–
selves is not enough, they also affect
the health of innocent bystanders.
According to the American Lung
Association : "Even when a smoker
inhales, researchers have calculated
that two-thirds of the smoke from
the burning cigarette goes into the
environment.
"The fascina ting fact is tha t side–
stream smoke-the smoke from the
burning end- has higher concentra–
tions of noxious compounds than
the mainstream smoke inhaled by
the smoker. Sorne stud ies show
there is
twice
as much tar and nico–
tine in sidestream smoke compared
to ma inst ream. And
three
times as
much of a compound called 3-4
benzpyrene, which is suspected as a
cancer-causing agent.
Five
times as
much carbon monoxide, which robs
the blood of oxygen. And
50
times
as much ammonia."
Even unborn babies can be ad–
versely affected by their parents'
smoking habits. Pregnant women
who smoke deprive fetuses of oxy-
26
"""'··
The smoking father may even be
implicated in the fetus morta li ty
rate. According to an eight-year
study by the German Research So–
ciety, chi ldren whose fathers smoke
at leas t ten cigarettes a ·day ruo a
higher risk of dying a t birth than
babies of nonsmoke rs because the
male sperm is damaged by excessive
intake of nicotine.
•. . But Also a Big Business
These are
real
horror stories based
on exhaus tive research. So where is
the hysteria, the clamor for a ban on
all tobacco use? Why a ren'! people
who work for tobacco companies
and advertising agencies ha rassed,
ar res ted and convicted for pu r–
veying and pushing a dangerous
drug? Why isn't tobacco banned be–
cause it poses a threat to public
health, a menace to our way of Iife?
The answer is tha t tobacco
is
so
much a part of our way of life. It has
been around so long and is so popu–
lar it isn't even perceived by most
people to be a drug. And there a re
ves ted inte res ts in its use. G lobally,
it is a multibill ion-dolla r indus try.
It
is a big cash crop in the United
ceed ing yea rs ,
which meant that
fewer people were smoking more
cigarettes.) Since then the number
of smokers has increased , until in
1976 over 50 million Americans
smoked oyer 620 billion cigarettes.
The reversa! of the downward
trend in 197 1 coíncided with the
ban on cigarette advertising from
TV and radio by federa l Iaw. One
wou1d expect this would have re–
moved sorne desire for smoking.
However, since TV and radio
broadcas ters could no longer carry
cigarette advertising, they felt no
ob1igation to continue the antismok–
ing messages of the American Can–
cer Society and other organizations
required under the Faí rness Doc–
trine.
Signíficantly, the sharpes t drop in
cigarette smoking occurred between
1967 and 197 1 when the televised
antísmoking messages were at theír
heíght. In face-to-face competition
wíth smoking ads, the antismoking
campaign was etfective.
Eliminate by 21st Century?
A few o ther coun tries, notably
Grea t Britain, have fo llowed the
(Continued on page 45)
The
PLAIN TRUTH July 1977