Europeans, out of some romantic rebellion against America and high technology, were shunning U.S.-grown food containing G.M.O.'s [genetically-modified organisms] even though there is no scientific evidence that these are harmful. But practically everywhere we went in Davos, Europeans were smoking cigarettes with their meals, coffee or conversation even though there is indisputable scientific evidence that smoking can kill you.
Thomas Friedman, in his February 2 New York Times column.
"[J]ust because a chemical can be measured...doesn't mean it causes disease."
Harm Reduction
Australian researchers note the immense cost to society of smoking compared to illegal drugs...
The report, produced for the federal government's national drug strategy, estimates that tobacco accounted for 61.2% of the costs to society of drugs...For the first time the cost calculations included an estimate of the impact of passive smoking and newly available data to assess the effect on the Australian population of absenteeism, drugs, ambulances, fires, crime, and even litter. Alcohol accounted for 22% of total costs...and illegal drugs for 17%...Tangible costs included hospital care, road crashes, loss of productivity and tax revenue, and increased crime and policing. The intangible costs included pain and suffering.
"...it's literally true that something like a thousand people will not die each year that would have otherwise died..."
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, annoucing a sweeping ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, as quoted by the New York Times December 12, 2002
I recently gave a speech about cigarettes to a libertarian discussion group called the Junto here in New York City. I had expected the conversation to pivot on the question of free will not only do libertarians defend the legal right to smoke, many scoff at the idea of addiction, since each individual must ultimately be held accountable for his own decisions, healthy or unhealthy.
There have been several reports lately about the odd, non-health-related projects that all that settlement money extracted from the tobacco companies went to, such as bridges, sprinkler systems, and even subsidies to tobacco farmers.
Some of the lawyers involved in suing the tobacco companies claimed they were interested not just in money but in helping to boost the health of the public. So, after the dust from the legal battles had settled, ACSH tried asking one of the lawyers for a small contribution from his firm's immense winnings estimated at approximately a billion dollars so that we could better educate the public about smoking risks. Not surprisingly, we haven't heard anything back yet. Here's the letter:
I wrote a big essay called LIBERTARIANS, SMOKING, AND INSANITY: How Ideology Affects Ideas About Freedom and Health a few months ago, suggesting that even those who defend the right to smoke including my fellow libertarians should acknowledge that smoking is a very bad idea, often fatally so (see ACSH's booklet, Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn't Tell You). I also criticized the doctrine of free will and the idea, promulgated by Dr.
PETA is giving children stickers that look like familiar cigarette ads but warn that cigarette companies do testing on animals. PETA says getting kids to stop smoking might be a fringe benefit but that their goal is to stop the animal testing.
Philip Morris's no doubt sincere and selfless response?
"PETA is acting irresponsibly by handing out tobacco logos to children."
Ellen Merlo, senior vice president, Philip Morris,quoted in the New York Times September 27, 2002
"I'm OK with it, but it'll be a drag if I don't make it until the next James Bond movie comes out."
Warren Zevon, fifty-five year-old singer of "Werewolves of London," on being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, as reported September 12 by Associated Press, which did not mention Zevon's smoking, and Reuters, which did.
Zevon, a longtime smoker, quit eight years ago. He has retained his sense of humor and his trademark logo, a skull wearing shades and smoking a cigarette.
To political activists though to few scientists ACSH's constant warnings about smoking seem like a non-sequitur. We're opposed to regulations in so many other areas and spend so much of our time reassuring people that they aren't going to be killed by pesticide residues on broccoli or by electric and magnetic fields from power lines, some critics say, why do we wimp out and denounce smoking, making it sound as if it's very bad for you? Why are we, as some put it, "libertarian except for smoking"?
We reject this characterization. We can object to cigarette smoking without contradicting libertarian principles.
Just as the Stonewall riots of 1969 are remembered as the start of the gay rights movement, so too will July 27, 2002 be remembered as the start of New York City's smokers' rights movement.
At least, that was the plan of the group NYC C.L.A.S.H. (NYC Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment) as they organized a petition drive against proposed New York City laws that would banish smokers from restaurants and even bars a petition drive launched on the site of the pro-gay rights Stonewall riots.
This "e-monograph" was reprinted in Liberty magazine. Todd Seavey is Director of Publications at the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH.org) and Editor of HealthFactsAndFears.com. His views do not necessarily represent those of ACSH.Table of contents
Introduction
Part One: SMOKING
Part Two: SZASZ AND SCHALER ON INSANITY
Part Three: MODERATION AND UTILITARIANISM
Part Four: PRAGMATISTS VS. IDEOLOGUES
Epi(b)logue: WHY WRITE AN E-MONOGRAPH?
Concern about weight and the drive to be thin increase the risk that girls will become daily smokers by the time they're eighteen or nineteen years old, according to a new study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The study appeared in the June 2002 issue of Preventive Medicine.