The War on Tobacco
Each day, millions of Americans of all ages light up a cigarette distributed by the tobacco companies. Smoking is a habit that, in the long run, causes cancer and other diseases associated with the lungs. Now, this deadly cancer causing drug is one of the leading causes of death in America today. Some may argue that it is a person¹s choice to smoke and that the tobacco companies are innocent because of this. In actuality, the tobacco companies are to blame for toying with the lives of millions of Americans. For many years, the tobacco companies have been keeping secrets from the American public and lied about the true effects of cigarette smoking causing our older generations¹ deaths. The tobacco companies now have warning labels on packs of cigarettes and are seeking another generation to kill by aiming their campaign at young teens that don¹t read labels. They are increasing the potency of the nicotine to ³hook² more smokers as well.
In the years 1950-1968, the tobacco industries knew that their product was harmful and didn¹t decide to warn the American public until the year 1969. Because of the tobacco companies irresponsibility, our older generations are enduring painful, inevitable deaths. The tobacco companies have been arguing for years that no studies have been done within their company about the correlation of cigarette smoking and lung cancer and that they are ignorant on that matter. They have been keeping things from us for years while studies outside the tobacco companies had been done to help prove that smoking is harmful in the short and long runs to one¹s health. There was a memo written in 1963 marked ³strictly private and confidential² which stated,² moreover, nicotine is addictive... We are then in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms.²(Hwang). If the tobacco companies were in fact ³ignorant² on the correlation between their product and lung cancer along with other diseases, then they should make themselves more educated about their own product or suffer the consequences and face law suits from the government and citizens of America. But, in fact, the tobacco companies have known for years what is really in each cigarette and how it really might affect us in the long run.
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... Americans. No amount of money could make up for the painful deaths of the victims of the tobacco companies. The tobacco companies should not only pay the state governments money, but also the individual Americans that are enduring painful, inevitable deaths due to the tobacco companies.
Works Cited
1)The Wall Street Journal, Jan.15, 1998 Reynolds Sought Specifically to Lure Young Smokers Years Ago, Data Suggest. By Milo Geyelin
2)The Wall Street Journal, April 24, 1998 Philip Morris Memo Outlines Strategy To Study How Nicotine Affects the Brain By Suein L. Hwang
3)Daily Camera, Heading off Teen Smokers By Jane E. Brody
4) The Wall Street Journal, Personality traits may predispose people to Addiction By Robert Langreth
5)The Wall Street Journal, Employers Crack Down, but Few Provide Help
By Robert Langreth
6)The Wall Street Journal, Antidepressant, other Drugs Offer New Hope For
Hard Cases By Elyse Tanouye
...ut throughout the past two decades, the realization of folly has called for a step in a new direction. For our society to finally rid ourselves of this parasite the change would have to be very slow; it would have to start with putting the entire industry in the hands of the government. In this way the corporation owners would truly be penalized while the product would be safer and the country would benefit from the profits. Marketing to children, testing underage smokers, using money to avoid the law, manipulating nicotine and suppressing research are among many of the immoral practices of the industry. Although they are very numerous and diverse they all share the same motive: to get rich. Money has become more important than compassion in the minds of the industry’s players. The success of the industry is merely a reflection of its immoral practices.
Slade, John, “The Tobacco Epidemic: Lessons from History.” University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. 1989.
The harmful carcinogens in cigarettes cause about 480,000 deaths each year. These amounts of casualties seem to me as a serious problem, which needs to be addressed and reduced immediately. Cigarettes are known to have a variety of chemicals inside of them ranging from acetone to tar. The chemicals inside of cigarettes have been directly linked to cancer related effects. Due to the poisonous effects and numerous complications involved with cigarettes, they should be made illegal to sell and consume within the United States. Although there are thousands of reasons why cigarettes should be illegal, in this argumentative essay I will closely examine three. The effects of carcinogens, stress of addiction and death prevention are the three main reasons why cigarettes should be illegal.
Lash, S. J., Timko, C, Curran, G M., McKay, J R., Burden, J L.; (Jun, 2011). Psychology of Addictive Behaviors; Vol 25(2); 238-251. Doi: 10.1037/a0022608
While todays major tobacco producers deny that they market to the youth. However, we still see them subliminally targeting children through magazine advertisements, store posters, and Internet ads. In addition, they continue to use product placement strategies in mov...
There are many explicit premises in this article that I will examine. The first premise is that, Tobacco companies have been and continue to be involved in undermining scientific evidence that documents the health hazards of secondhand smoke. This is more than an hidden assumption, reference from the Los Angles Times reported in November 1999 that the major cigarette companies "are engaged in a far-reaching campaign to discredit evidence that secondhand smoke is harmful to human health." This is my second premise. Here, there is an implied notion that the Los Angels Times conducted a study to find these findings true. The third premise states, Tobacco industry allies recycle old myths and propaganda - and continue to plant the seeds of confusion and doubt as to the economic effects of smoke free air policies - before legislatures and city councils. Here we see the strong initiative that the tobacco companies especially Philips and Morris take to attack policies that go against their business. The next premise is the fourth premise, As in the past, tobacco companies have continued to create and hide behind front groups to lobby against tobacco control and public health policies. This is another implied notion, which we can say that tobacco companies are trying to control the regulations on tobacco.
Smoking cigarettes is a detrimental practice not only to the smoker, but also to everyone around the smoker. According to an article from the American Lung Association, “Health Effects” (n.d.), “Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., causing over 438,000 deaths per year”. The umbrella term for tobacco use includes the use of cigarettes, cigars, e-cigs and chewing tobacco. While tobacco causes adverse health consequences, it also has been a unifying factor for change in public health. While the tobacco industries targets specific populations, public health specifically targets smokers, possible smokers, and the public to influence cessation, policies and education.
Every year cigarette smoking is responsible for 500,000 premature deaths (Nugel), you do not want to be just another statistic, do you? America’s first cash crop was tobacco. That means that tobacco has been around for a really long time. It was not until 1865, though, that cigarettes were sold commercially. They were sold to soldiers at the end of the Civil War (Dowshen). From then, cigarettes spread like wildfire, and it was not until 1964 that anyone made a stand about the negative effects of tobacco and cigarettes. People start smoking for all different reasons, some to fit in and some to “escape”. Regardless, it is a horrible habit. 3900 children will try their first cigarette today. Amongst adults who currently smoke, 68% of them began at age 18 or younger, and 85% at 21 or younger (American Lung Association). And of all those people, 70% say if they were given another chance they would never have picked up that first cigarette (Tobacco Free Maine). Smoking is responsible for 1 and 5 deaths in the united states, and is the number one preventable cause of death (NLH). Smoking burns and there is no doubt about that, but before one picks up that cigarette, understand the negative effects on not only oneself, but others affected by ones poor choices, like second-hand smoke. Because of smoking cigarettes, many types of cancer, decrease of life quality, and negative health effects have become all too common in the world today.
Cancer; latin for ‘crab or sleeping ulcer’ is an illness that consists of abnormal cells in a certain division in a part of the body. It has devastating effects on whom it is developed in. There are many different cancers and they can affect someone from the brain (brain tumors) to toe (skin cancer). Cancer can be categorized as out-of control cell growth. People that smoke should have to pay a levy, towards their future healthcare needs, on every pack they buy.As tobacco laws continue to increase and become more strict, like plain packaging and designated smoking areas. The tobacco industry requires 5000 new smokers every day to continue to be productive. Although the laws state that one must be of age 18 or older to be able to purchase any tobacco products, 88% of all smokers begun the harmful life that is smoking.
Toates, F. (2010) ‘The nature of addictions: scientific evidence and personal accounts’ in SDK228 The science of the mind: investigating mental health, Book 3, Addictions, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 1-30.
Each year 440,000 people die, in the United States alone, from the effects of cigarette smoking (American Cancer Society, 2004). As discussed by Scheraga & Calfee (1996) as early as the 1950’s the U.S. government has utilized several methods to curb the incidence of smoking, from fear advertising to published health warnings. Kao & Tremblay (1988) and Tremblay & Tremblay (1995) agreed that these early interventions by the U.S. government were instrumental in the diminution of the national demand for cigarettes in the United States. In more recent years, state governments have joined in the battle against smoking by introducing antismoking regulations.
Second Hand Smoke In the 1950's and 60's scientists gave the people a lot of evidence on the deadly effects of smoking where the tobacco companies on the other hand tried to put the doubt in people’s minds through the campaigns to show that it is not all true. By the time people actually decided to take care of their health and finally saw how life-threatening smoking could be by real life examples, the tobacco companies already got rich from its sales. Nowadays, nobody doubts that “firsthand” smoke is deadly to your health and it causes lung cancer and heart disease in adults and asthma and bronchitis in children. Now the industry is onto the secondhand smoke. Scientists and researchers are representing a lot of evidence and research that has been done throughout the years showing that the secondhand smoke can also cause a lung cancer in nonsmokers. The study has been done of people who have been long exposed to secondhand smoke and it shows that 26 out of 33 published studies indicate a link between secondhand smoke and lung cancer. The study estimates that the people that were breathing secondhand smoke were 8 to 150 percent more likely to get lung cancer. The tobacco companies are trying to argue the facts and are still in serious debate about the health hazards of breathing a secondhand smoke. A lot of anti-smoking organizations are trying to turn smoking in public into a private activity that does not have to involve nonsmokers breathing secondhand smoke. What is even more important is that many of these organizations convinced a lot of smokers to cut back or quit completely. The problem of secondhand smoke is increasing because it is so common in our society. It makes secondhand smoke the third-ranking cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers. Mothers who live with a smoking spouse have to realize the ill effects of secondhand smoke on children even before they are born. The smoking components reach the developing fetus through the mother. Infants that are born in a smoking environment weigh less and have a weaker chance of becoming a fully developed child. Secondhand smoke leads to blood clots and damages arterial linings which are the two most leading factors in the development of heart disease. The tobacco companies got scared of the effect that the secondhand smoke research can do to the cigarette makers.
Everitt, B. Robbins, T. (1999) Drug addiction: bad habits add up. Macmillian Magazines, volume 389, pg 567-570.
The tobacco industry is a very unethical industry, due to the long term effects of tobacco on humans. The industry also does not assess the ethical and social responsibility the best way that it should. There are many factors that make the industry unethical; some of the reasons are the way the cigarette companies around the world Advertise, the way governments and cigarette companies make a huge profit from the sales of cigarettes, and the labeling health risks. I do believe however that there is something that the tobacco companies can do to better their strategy as far as their ethics go. I think that they should, always be looking for the best interest on their consumers, as well as advertise strictly on the effects that the cigarettes and what the people are getting for their money.
The sale of cigarettes and tobacco is a multi-billion dollar industry, but is it truly worth all the problems that stem from their use? Health care costs are extremely high due to all the health problems associated with cigarettes and tobacco. Even though research has proven time and time again the harmful effects of cigarettes, and the rising cost of health care caused by cigarettes, our government will not take a stand and stop all manufacturing of the horrible toxins. Every year, new medical reports are issued regarding the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world die every year from diseases caused by smoking.