Skull With Burning Cigarette (1885) Vincent Van Gogh
North Carolina and Wisconsin passed legislation on Wednesday, May 14th, that put them in the growing trend of states to ban smoking in all public places including restaurants and bars.
No one can deny the obvious health hazards of smoking cigarettes. One just has to take a look at history. Prior to the invention of the cigarette rolling machine in 1882, lung cancer was an extremely rare disease representing only 1% of all cancers seen in autopsy. People either rolled their own or if they were well-to-do they bought the more expensive company manufactured hand rolled cigarettes. Cost and effort made cigarettes back then a luxury item, smoked minimally. In 1870, for instance, per capita consumption of cigarettes was 0.4 cigarettes. By 1890 that rated jumped to 35 cigarettes.
By 1901, cigar sales outnumber cigarette nearly 2 to 1 and four out of 5 men smoked at least one cigar a day. There are only 100 references to cases of lung cancer.
Even as late as 1910, cigarette per capita consumption was only around 150 per year while incidences of lung cancer were gradually rising with 374 cases.
A German doctor, Fritz Lickint of Dresden, published the first study to link cigarettes to lung cancer in 1929. The per capital consumption of cigarettes had jumped to nearly 1000 a year by 1930. Lichkint was also the first person to coin the term passive smoking. By now, lung cancer represented nearly 14% of all cancers.
In Australia, by 1945, 75% of adult males smoked, while in the United States 50% of the men smoke and 33% of the women. Consumption per capita in America had jumped to 2558 cigarettes per year.
By 1950, cigarette consumption is at half a pack a day per capita, but dark days are ahead for cigarette manufacturers. Several studies making a direct link between cigarettes and lung cancer are released. The FTC cracked down on deceptive cigarette advertising claims of health benefits.
Dr. Ernst L. Wynder released a study in 1953 where tobacco tar was painted onto the backs of mice thus inducing cancer tumors. The link was now clear.
And in 1954 the first product liability lawsuit against a cigarette manufacturer was filed. Ira C. Lowe filed the claim on behalf of her smoker husband who had died of cancer. She lost the suit, but cigarette manufacturers were quick to start marketing "safe" filter cigarettes. They also came up with their own "medical experts" to refute some of these claims.
The first Surgeon General's report linking smoking to lung cancer was released in 1964 and two years later the first caution is placed on cigarette packaging, "Caution: Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health."
Cigarette consumption was now declining, down from an all-time high in the 1950s. Despite this, lung cancer, once the rarest of cancers, had become the number one cancer death by the 1970s.
Today the halcyon days of Big Tobacco are over. North Carolina and Wisconsin join 24 other states that have already banned smoking in public places. Four more states are scheduled to join this club later this year.
One day soon, lung cancer will again be among the more rare forms of cancer.
For more information:
Cigarette Advertising: Smoke 'em if you got 'em
History of Cigarettes and Lung Cancer
Comments
I'm a non-smoker and I personally think that people that smoke should be required to smoke INSIDE their own homes and cars that are required by law to have smoke eating filters. If there are children present they should be charged with abuse if they are exposed.
As it is now, people go outside because they don't even want the stench in their own home, so it drifts into mine and others homes and apartments.
I'm highly allergic to it and I get sick. I'm not alone in this.
They should be held responsible for medical bills incurred upon others because of their addiction. And, smokers should pay for their own medical that are related to smoking.
Sound harsh? Not to me.
I'm tired of suffering, getting migraines, full body aches, and not being able to function or go many places. I often have to hold my breath while sitting at a stop light as I have no place to escape. I hate to have to walk past the smokers outside stores just to go grocery shopping.
To be continued....
can smell that stink when a smoker is in a car almost half a mile up the highway.
People make stupid mistakes and accidents happen...that's life.
People that are smart enough to never start smoking shouldn't have to foot the bill for their stupidity.
Smoking isn't an accident and there are so many Smoking Cessation Programs out there, there is no excuse.
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