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On National Public Radio's Diane Rehm Show I heard about the latest Surgeon General report on cigarette smoking. Since I smoked cigarettes for 30 years, from 1955 (at age 15) until April 12, 1985 (at 12 P.M.) and well know the insidious nature of addiction, I am both shocked and horrified that today's usually intrusive government continues to allow industry to deliver this murderous substance (tobacco) to the general public.
Here are some excerpts:
(emphasis mine)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2014
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Surgeon General report says 5.6 million U.S. children will die prematurely unless current smoking rates drop.
Today’s report, The Health Consequences of Smoking -- 50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General, comes a half century after the historic 1964 Surgeon General’s report, which concluded that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer. Since that time, smoking has been identified as a cause of serious diseases of nearly all the body's organs. Today, scientists add diabetes, colorectal and liver cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction, age-related macular degeneration, and other conditions to the list of diseases that cigarette smoking causes. In addition, the report concludes that secondhand smoke exposure is now known to cause strokes in nonsmokers.
Although youth smoking rates declined by half between 1997 and 2011, each day another 3,200 children under age 18 smoke their first cigarette, and another 2,100 youth and young adults become daily smokers. Every adult who dies prematurely from smoking is replaced by two youth and young adult smokers.
The report concludes that the tobacco industry started and sustained this epidemic using aggressive marketing strategies to deliberately mislead the public about the harms of smoking. The evidence in the report emphasizes the need to accelerate and sustain successful tobacco control efforts that have been underway for decades.
Get that? The U.S. Surgeon General says tobacco marketing is a cause of tobacco use.
Read the entire HHS release HERE
Shocking!
Criminal!
A few years back (1998 until 2004) when the TV series Sex And The City was popular, I happened to see a program with a roving reporter interviewing a group of teenagers about the show. One of the young girls (brandishing a cigarette) was asked what she liked most about it. She said she admired everything about Sarah Jessica Parker, how the character Carrie Bradshaw took no shit (bleeped) from anybody, and how Carrie smoked cigarettes no matter what anyone said... and how she looked so-o-o cool the way she held her cigarette and when she drew in and blew out the smoke... taking no shit (bleeped) from anybody.
Carrie Bradshaw
Every year in the U.S. over 392,000 people die from tobacco-caused disease, making it the leading cause of preventable death. Another 50,000 people die from exposure to secondhand smoke. Tragically, each day thousands of kids still pick up a cigarette for the first time. The cycle of addiction, illness and death continues.
What can be done to stop smoking? The American Lung Association is working to strengthen laws and policies that protect everyone from secondhand smoke and prevent young people from starting.
American Lung Association
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Did You Know . . .?
According to a Jewish legend God created the first blacksmith's tongs as one of his last creations, because mankind needs tongs to make tongs.
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HISTORICAL EVENT
After several years of private practice, Dr. Blackwell founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children with her sister Emily, who was the third woman in the US to get a medical degree. In 1868, the institution was expanded to include a women's college for the training of nurses and doctors, the first of its kind in America.
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WORD FOR TODAY
horrific
adjective
grossly offensive to decency or morality
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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
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It is more profitable for your congressman to support the tobacco industry than your life.
--Jackie Mason
The true face of smoking is disease, death and horror - not the glamour and sophistication the pushers in the tobacco industry try to portray.
--David Byrne
NASA TV
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