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so, i have to make a magazine for my english class. but i have to write about it as though it were in the 1950s. or my health section i was gong ot write about cigarettes. i know that in 1957 the surgeon general released a report saying that there were some studies indicating that heavy smoking seemed to be linked to ung cancer, what i wondering though is what the public's reaction was? did people readily believe it or was it motly ignored? i don't know if i should write might my article as a skeptical reporter or as someone who really believes the risks?
what amazes me is that today we know all of these facts and yet people still make the choice to begin smoking.
i think i'll include something about the filters in my article. that sounds like it will make it more realistic
That just goes to show how hard the addiction is to break.
Eventhough the information is out there not all people read it or hear it about it, at least not indepth. Even doctors do not really address it indepthly with their patients..I guess they figure that adults should know better. Or at least my doctors did not. I think schools should start the education much earlier than the 5th or 6th grades. I know by the time I was 12 years old I was already addicted.
I hope that you get to read your report out loud or put information on poster boards, that way it will reach some of your fellow classmates ears. Some countries do a terrific job of putting graphic warnings on the packs, they even include pictures that make the buyer really beware. I don't know if including warnings of then versus now would be appropriate for your paper.
I remember in 1968 my cousins and aunts sitting around our dining room table having a conversation.
My cousins made .60 cents to 1.20 an hour. They said they heard on the news that cigarettes were going up from .50 cents to a whole 1.60 per pack. They all swore that once they hit that price they were going to quit. Now at 5.80 a pack they are still smoking away.
I thought the report came out in early sixties. I was in high school at that time and just about everyone smoked. I remember that some of my friends quit at the time. I tried but was already hooked (I started at about 6 yrs old!). Then I went in the military where the reward for doing what you were supposed to was to be allowed to smoke.
We didnt know anyone with lung cancer. It was something to worry about 20 years in the future when we were old and ready to die anyhow(40 is ancient to a twenty something) plus we were invincible (that attitude is why young people make good military). If you cant quit before, you will probably quit (maybe involuntarily) when you experience symptoms but thats usually too late. I've heard of lung cancer patients smoking thru a trachea tube. But you get a prognosis that you will live a few months, the most stressful period of your life and you cant have the crutch you've depended on for the past 20+ years. If we had been really educated on the subject and understood that some day in the future we would slowly suffocate and/or have to have radical heart bypass surgery along with it, maybe it would have sunk in. Not starting is the key but peer pressure is tremendous. A young person should ask themselves if those peers will be there to encourage them when they go for radiation and chemotherapy treatments, a number of years in the future which will come a lot sooner then they can now fathom. The Surgeon General's report from my experience affected maybe 1 out 10 smokers at the time it was issued but its influence on smokers has grown immensely over the past 40+ years, probably becasue people realize what really killed a close relative or friend. I dont know the stats but I doubt the report has had much impact on young people starting to smoke. But smoking is probably the mildest drug young people are tempted with today. I dont have any answer for that problem, but I know personally that nicotine is the only addiction I have ever had and I will never get over it. I quit in 1979 and I could light one up right now, almost 30 years later.
I wonder if putting these on cigarette packs discourage young smokers. Doesn't seem quite as hip and cool to me. Here in the USA they are not so graphic. They even seem to directly entice our young people or at least they used to with some of the labels. I really don't pay that much attention to the different types since I stopped. Take a look at the disturbing images on these packs.Warnings-1
yeah, i understand if you're already addicted that its hard to quite. it's just beyond me that there are ppl my age (18) and younger who still make the choice to begin smoking since we have grown up with the information. i don't think i'll ever get it. but i get that the addiction can be hard to give up. my grandma is currently dying of cancer clearly caused by cigarettes and has trouble breathing, but she swears the cancer isn't from the cigs and and that they're really helping her cough...
btw, those cars are awesome. i think i'll make them into ads for my magazzine!
thanks for all the responses.
i wonder if they put pictures of a smoker's lung next to the current surgeon general's warning, or maybe on the other panel so that it could be larger, if it would make ppl think twice...just a thought.
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