According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ," Cigarette smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke are associated with premature death from chronic diseases, economic losses to society, and a substantial burden on the United States health-care system." The most recent data from the CDC, tabulated for the years of 2000-2004 concluded that, "cigarette smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke resulted in at least 443,000 premature deaths, approximately 5.1 million Years of potential life lost, and $96.8 billion in productivity losses annually in the United States.
I understand the reason behind those anti-smoking ads we see on television that show a real victim and the consequence of their years of smoking. But showing a woman without her arms or legs or a man with a hole in his throat, only able to communicate with some vibrating voice machine, is scaring the heck out of my seven-year-old daughter, when it airs as a commercial, and likely having a minimal impact on people who smoke.
I think there must be a better way , a more appropriate way, to get some message, even if it may be hard to communicate with the fools that smoke, to stop smoking. I first considered the idea of changing the name of cigarettes to cancer sticks but since smoking kills even more people by causing heart attacks, strokes and chronic lung disease I thought that would be like calling the Nazis Gypsy murderers ; true, but an enormous underestimation of the amount of murders they committed against other groups of people,especially the Jews.
In case you don’t comprehend this and just think that smoking is only associated with one type of cancer, lung cancer, here is a list of all the cancers that are definitely associated with smoking: In fact the greatest risk of developing pancreatic cancer, which carries an almost automatic death sentence, is smoking! Just ask friends and relatives of Patrick Swayze.
Colorectal
Head and neck cancers, including esophagus
Kidney
Liver
Lower urinary tract, including renal pelvis, ureter, and bladder
Lung
Mesothelioma
Myeloid leukemia
Nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses
Pancreas
Penis
Stomach
Uterine cervix
J Natl Cancer Inst 2004; 96:99.
But why stop there? Smoking also increases the risk of lung infections, type II diabetes, osteoporosis, stomach ulcers, gum disease, low birth weight, sicker babies to those who smoke, will increase the risk of death for anyone who lives with a smoker, and results in more general sickness and days lost at work because of it.
I then considered the idea of putting skull and crossbones on the package but thought that some idiots might find the package attractive.
I eventually came up with the idea of having all manufacturers of this toxin change the name from cigarettes to morons; that's right morons, and even suggest that this change be added to the dictionary. On each pack would be printed morons. When a person requested a pack they would request a pack of morons. The surgeon general print on the package might be something like this; Smoking Morons causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy. I would also add: Your family will be very upset when you drop dead from one of these diseases. You must be a Moron to smoke a Moron.
Let’s stop putting those “Creature Feature” style commercials on television and, instead, place photos of those disfigured smokers inside a pack of Morons. It’s not appropriate for any child’s mind to deal with those ghastly images. We should not cause nightmares for our children, that accidentally come across these foolish ads, but rather create nightmarish fears for those who continue to smoke. 
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Maurice Tougas
Poppi Iceland
Christine Bollerud
Dr. Vanessa Neumann
The Feral Conservative
Donna Carbone
Salon.com
Comments
It takes real stupidity to suggest that everyone, or even any noticeable percentage of smokers are dropping dead or coming down with a whole raft of terrible diseases when any and every one of us CAN count, y'know. All of us know hundreds of smokers. Few of us know anyone who has died from the habit.
Here in Canada the propaganda put on cigarette packages says that 15 times the number of people killed in auto accidents every year, die from "smoking related" diseases. I have known 11 people who died in car accidents. So I should have known 165 people who've died from smoking. I don't. I haven't known 165 people who've died in my whole lifetime, and I'm 71. Sure smoking carries some risks; what doesn't?
And don't even start on that BS about "second-hand" smoke. Not one reputable researcher has ever found any provable connection between it and any health problems whatsoever. Not once. Never. Not here in North America nor any other place on this earth. Heck if you really had anything, you'd not be using weasel-words / phrases like "associated with" or "smoking related", or "is thought to be connected to", and all the others, now would you?
Why don't you and those of your ilk get off your high horses and stop trying to force people to quit smoking.? Why don't you have the common decency to give us the facts and let us decide. Facts Doctor - not propaganda.
THERE COULD BE ALMOST NO SMOKERS LEFT!
Smokers put forward a genuine, workable plan to end smoking over 40 years ago. You twits, who just love giving orders to people, didn't listen. If you had there would be so few smokers still around that the tobacco companies would be out of business. And you STILL won't listen! I wonder why.....
But you don't really care about people stopping smoking do you? What you really care about is arrogantly deciding for others what they may or may not do. And, when possible, forcing them to do as you say. It's not about smoking - it's about power.
And I, for one, won't grant you, or anyone else, that power over me..... ever. I own me. You do not.
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I got involved in the "Freedom from Smoking" program run at a local hospital, at very reasonable cost. They did not seek to scare people into not smoking; everyone there wanted to stop smoking.
Instead, they pointed out that we were enslaved to a habit that was only partially chemical in nature. We were stuck in a social habit. They didn't even ask us to stop smoking for two weeks, only to write down the circumstances when we smoked, on a little card we could tuck into our cigarette packs.
We eventually did get the film showing cancer-decayed lungs, but only by the third week when we were committed to the program. Scaring people upfront, as Dr. Levine would do, would simply not work. Neither would the variations on the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve-Step program, which is a self-abuse fraud. (See www.orangepapers.org for an expose of that particular scam.)
I had one moment of weakness, one year after I quit in the program. I inhaled a puff of a cigarette. It tasted foul. I threw it away and have never smoked again. That wouldn't have happened if I'd been inundated with scare tactics, like the ones Dr. Levine recommends, like the ones that have been ineffective for decades.
1. I do not believe that those commercials are helpful - please read the blog carefully.
2. When you smoke you not only hurt yourself you also hurt your family, your employer, and every citizen of this country. Smokers contribute to the cost of healthcare.
I understand that we all should have freedom to do whatever we wish to do to ourselves, even it if isn't too smart.
And finally, I am not a huge fan of our healthcare system and agree that too many hospitals and doctors find ways to profit from others illness.
The list of "smoking related" diseases is a complete sham and has led to people believing silly things such as one blogger here on OS who just recently was stunned when told she has lung cancer. Her statement, "How could this happen to me, I've never smoked?" is indicative of the mis-information put about by anti-smoking control freaks. No one has EVER told her - or anyone else, if they can hide it - that 6 of every ten thousand people who DON'T smoke or even come near smokers, will get lung cancer. The number for smokers is 7 of every ten thousand. (Numbers from studies done by the American Medical Association and the British Medical Society - 1956)
I was personally shocked to learn that there is arsenic in cigarettes ....UNTIL I learned that the average carrot has 14 times as much! .... AND that it is a trace element that our body needs. I'd like to know how much of then many chemicals that are said to be in tobacco smoke are actually absorbed by the body too. I mean, if "X" amount is in the smoke when it is inhaled and "X" amount is still in the smoke when it is exhaled, then the body has absorbed exactly NONE of it.
I'm sick of the lies and half truths told by anti-smokers. Get real and tell us the doggone truth. ALL of the truth, if you please.
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My mother's father was a smoker and died from ischemia, long before I was born. Right off the bat I can think of five male relatives who were smokers and who died of cancers known to be smoking related.
Still, I think restrictions on smoking have gone as far as they can reasonably be expected to go, and maybe then some. I think it's ridiculous you can't smoke in bars. People don't go to bars for their health. I believe the customers will cheerfully tell you that, in exactly those words.
I haven't written any posts on Big Tobacco because I think they've been bashed enough. I prefer less obvious villains.
I'm not a doctor, I don't even play one on TV, but I have known lots of smokers and lots of ex-smokers, and they have told me it is the hardest habit to break. I know ex-heroin addicts who have told me that to quit smoking is 100 times harder than quitting heroin. It looks like the cigarette smoking war has to be concentrated on the prevention cycle of the smoking chain.
There are some people who think the earth is square, who possibly believe that aliens live in their town, and I see from some of these respsonses that smoking ain't bad for you at all.
There are some people who think the earth is square, who possibly believe that aliens live in their town, and I see from some of these respsonses that smoking ain't bad for you at all.