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?

N0help4u

I think people had the same attitude they do now about cigarettes.
They will die happy smoking rather than quit.
I do not remember the surgeon general or anybody saying that before the mid 60's
I don't remember cigarettes being seen as a health risk until around the mid 60's.
They had cigarette commercials until around 62, the warning was not on the packs until around 66
If it was 57 nobody cared one way or another.

bushg

You may want to search and see how they targeted certain groups, blacks for menthol cigs, long slender ones for women, cigs in cutesy packs, men the rugged camels, pall malls , marlboro, lucky strike. I think for a long time until probably the 80's no one really took the dangers of smoking that seriously.
I think if it were my paper I would write it from a skeptics point of view, since you are writing it based on being in that time span when public awareness had just begun.

bushg

A brief history of cigarettes, tobacco and smoking. Interesting

Tobacco Timeline: The Twentieth Century 1950 - 1999--The Battle is Joined Really interesting

Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers - AOL Video Unbelievable!!!

justcurious55

thanks for the answers. i know the surgeon general did offer a statement in '57 because i found a copy of it and also of some of theearly studies that were done. but your response makes me think even more that it was mostly ignored haha

bushg

I believe when the cigarette makers started worrying that the general public was really start to listening that is when they came out with the filtered cigarettes and then a company that produced Kent came out with a plastic filter that was supposedly really safe(hospitals used these filters for their breathing machines) kicker is that it turns out that these filters had asbestos in them. So these smokers were getting a double whammy. I wonder how many companies followed them and made cigarettes with plastic filters

I also saw cartoon strips about smokers...they were not really advocating smoking but they definitely were not saying it was harmful either.

Good luck with your paper.

N0help4u

It was definitely ignored until the mid 60's
have to spread rep bushg but the timeline is excellent AND
it did remind me that the only 'talk' in the 50's in the general public was which filter was better to reduce tar. Like the better filter made the tar acceptable and the only two bad additives ever mentioned were tar and nicotine. Now they are up to over 150 bad additives.
I guess many have been added through the years.

bushg

nohelp I took a smoke stoppers class that lasted for a few weeks and one of the things they taught us, is the makers put sugar in cigs. Now thats something on their part...how many people don't like sugar.

My son took a Dare class and came home scared out of his wits because of the products that are in cigs. I quit 1 -2 months later. Poor kid would come home from school and ask me how many I had smoked that day...How could I not find away to quit beside I had been trying unsuccessfully for a few years. But I think his terror was the breaking point for me.

N0help4u

Yeah I think they have been adding many more additives through the years because it is over 150 now.

Formaldehyde (embalming fluid)
A colourless liquid, highly poisonous, used to preserve dead bodies - also found in cigarette smoke. Known to cause cancer, respiratory, skin and gastrointestinal problems.

Ammonia (toilet cleaner)
Used as a flavouring, frees nicotine from tobacco turning it into a gas, found in dry cleaning fluids.

Acetone (nail polish remover)
Fragrant volatile liquid ketone, used as a solvent, for example, nail polish remover - found in cigarette smoke.

Tar
Particulate matter drawn into lungs when you inhale on a lighted cigarette. Once inhaled, smoke condenses and about 70 per cent of the tar in the smoke is deposited in the smoker's lungs.

Nicotine (insecticide/addictive drug)
One of the most addictive substances known to man, a powerful and fast-acting medical and non-medical poison. This is the chemical which causes addiction.

Carbon Monoxide (CO) (car exhaust fumes)
An odourless, tasteless and poisonous gas, rapidly fatal in large amounts - it's the same gas that comes out of car exhausts and is the main gas in cigarette smoke, formed when the cigarette is lit. Others you may recognize are :

Arsenic (rat poison),

Hydrogen Cyanide (gas chamber poison)

Naphythlamin- A bladder poison,

Cadmium- Used in rechargeable batteries,

Benzo (a) pyrene- A cancer promoter,
Benzene (petrol additive)
A colourless cyclic hydrocarbon obtained from coal and petroleum, used as a solvent in fuel and in chemical manufacture - and contained in cigarette smoke. It is a known carcinogen and is associated with leukaemia.

Ethyl 2-furoate- A liver poison,
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justcurious55

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