Hey!, Wanna See Some Sin?

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions and . . . their sins." Isa. 58:1

3. The Chemical Sins: Substance Abuse

3c. Smoking and Tobacco Products

1) Number of Americans involved
2) Why we included smoking in a list of sins. Is it a sin?
3) What's wrong with nicotine and other tobacco products?
4) Cigarette smoking
5) Cigar smoking
6) Pipe smoking
7) Smokeless (spit) tobacco: Snuff, Chewing
8) Second hand smoke
9) Teenagers and children
10) Effects on children and the fetus
11) The cost of using tobacco, in dollars, illness and death.
12) Your tax dollars support the tobacco industry
13) Where to get help to stop smoking
14) For further reading

 

1) Number of Americans Involved:

Adults, ages 18 and over, using cigarettes: 55,900,000
Children, ages 12-17, using cigarettes:         4,100,000
Children who begin smoking                       1,000,000 (per year, 3,000 per day)
Total, using cigarettes                              60,000,000

 

Adults who smoke cigars                       4,600,000
Children who have smoked a cigar              6,000,000 (ages 14-17, includes 1.7 million females)

Adults who smoke pipes                             2,926,000

Children exposed to second-hand smoke    15,000,000 (in their own homes)

Adults using smokeless tobacco                  11,000,000
Children using smokeless tobacco                 1,000,000 (ages 12-17)
Total using smokeless tobacco                    12,000,000

*Total using any tobacco product              66,000,000

*[Totals may vary due to individuals using more than one tobacco product. Totals do not include illegal substances.]

Some of the totals above are calculated using information from the following:
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/research_data/adults_prev/tab_8.htm
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet

Smokeless includes: loose leaf chewing; plug and twist chewing; scotch or dry snuff, moist snuff.

From "The History of Smoking":

-1577: England: Medicine: Frampton translates Monardes into English. European doctors look for new cures--tobacco is recommended for toothache, falling fingernails, worms, halitosis, lockjaw & cancer.
-1600s: Popes ban smoking in holy places. Pope Urban VIII (1623-44) threatens excommunication for those who smoke or take snuff in holy places.
-1602: England: Publication of Worke of Chimney Sweepers by anonymous author identified as 'Philaretes' states that illness of chimney sweepers is caused by soot and that tobacco may have similar effects. (LB)
-1665: Europe: The Great Plague: Smoking tobacco is thought to have a protective effect.
-1665: Health: England: Samuel Pepys describes a Royal Society experiment in which a cat quickly dies when fed "a drop of distilled oil of tobacco."
-1701: Medicine: Nicholas Andryde Boisregard warns that young people taking too much tobacco have trembling, unsteady hands, staggering feet and suffer a withering of "their noble parts."
-1724: Pope Benedict XIII learns to smoke and repeals bans on smoking.(TSW)
-1761: England: John Hill performs perhaps first clinical study of tobacco effects, warns snuff users they are vulnerable to cancers of the nose.
-1761: England: Dr. Percival Pott notes incidence of cancer of the scrotum among chimneysweeps, theorizing a connection between cancer and exposure to soot.
-1791: Health: England: London physician John Hill reports cases in which use of snuff caused nasal cancers.
-1795: Sammuel Thomas von Soemmering of Maine reports on cancers of the lip in pipe smokers.
-1798. Famed physician Benjamin Rush writes on the medical dangers of tobacco
-1826: Medicine: The purified form of the nicotine compound is obtained
-1828: Germany: Heidelberg students Ludwig Reimann and Wilhelm Heinrich Posselt write exhaustive dissertations on the pharmacology of nicotine, concluding it is a "dangerous poison."
-1859: Reverend George Trask publishes tract "Thoughts and stories for American Lads: Uncle Toby's anti-tobacco advice to his nephew Billy Bruce". He writes, "Physicians tell us that twenty thousand or more in our own land are killed by [tobacco] every year (LB)

http://historian.org/bysubject/tobacco2.htm

2) Why is smoking included in a list of sins?

1. Scripture condemns drunkenness as sin (Gal. 5:21; Rom. 13:11-14; Lk. 21:33-36; 1 Cor. 5:11-13).
-- Drunkenness is the impairment of one's mental and physical faculties.
-- The condemnation of drunkenness (and other sins) includes the phrase "and such like" (Gal. 5:21).
-- Any use of nicotine impairs one's mental and physical faculties.

2. Scripture condemns "the lusts of the flesh . . . the desires of the flesh and of the mind" (Eph. 2:3).
-- "Nicotine is highly addictive. It is both a stimulant and a sedative to the central nervous system."
-- "Nicotine is one of the most heavily used addictive drugs in the United States."
     http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/tobacco.html

3. People begin smoking for various reasons. They continue to smoke because they are addicted.
-- Addiction is condemned in scripture. "Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Rom. 6:16).
-- Addiction is a form of idolatry. "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them (manufactured items, "graven images"), nor serve them: . . . " (Ex. 20:5, 4).

"Smoking is a habit of addiction." Sir Charles Ellis, BATCO science advisor, 1962 BATCO research and development conference." (BATCO) British American Tobacco Company
http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/nov96/handouts.htm


4. God gives us free choice (Deu. 30: 15, 19) of life and good, or death and evil. In our preoccupation with our "freedoms", we tend to forget that God gave us physical life and Christ paid the price (for us) which makes available to us, eternal life. With freedom, comes responsibility. We have a responsibility to God to properly care for our bodies and our minds. "For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Cor. 6:20). To choose to smoke is to choose ill health and death. There is nothing "good" about the use of tobacco products.

5. Smoking harms others, a violation of the "golden rule". "Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." (Mat. 7:12).
     In addition, our government using our tax money represents the American tobacco industry internationally, promoting the production and marketing of tobacco.( See #12 below.)

6. The growing, manufacturing and use of tobacco products harms the environment. "And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." (Gen. 2:15). The Hebrew shamar --to keep, means to "guard" and "protect", not to destroy. Growing tobacco makes the soil unfit to grow food crops.

7. Scripture condemns "uncleanness". "I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." (Rom. 6:19). The Greek word akatharsis -- uncleanness, means physically or morally impure or dirty. Many smokers admit that smoking is a "nasty" habit.

8. God forbids idolatry (Ex. 20:3-6). The New Testament condemns idolatry (Rev. 21:8). Idolatry is service to any other "master" (man, object or practice) other than God (Rom. 6:16). Addiction is an enslavement, a bondage, a "servitude" to any drug or any practice which exerts more influence over a person than God's law of love. Idolatry includes the giving in to seemingly irresistible temptations to do harm to ourselves or to others (1 Cor. 10:13-14).

9. A Sin of Omission

"How long can religious conservatives go on about protecting kids from dangerous drugs without saying anything about smoking?
"If the tobacco income was no longer donated to the church, many churches would completely go under," says Steve Sumerel, the director of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention's substance abuse and family life division. "The Baptist pastors out there know that. Why pick on an issue where you know you're going to lose your job?"

"Similar questions confront a growing number of conservative Christian clergy and political activists as they grapple with the contradiction between their beliefs about the sanctity of life and the Christian right's conspicuous silence about the tobacco industry."

Sin of Omission, By William Saletan
http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/MJ96/saletan1.html


10. A Sin of Hypocrisy

"Religious conservatives who condemn abortion face a glaring contradiction: Most refuse to speak out against the dangers tobacco poses to pregnancy.

In April 1995, the Journal of Family Practice published a study on the effects of smoking during pregnancy. Drawing upon dozens of previous studies, the authors estimated that not only does smoking dramatically increase the chances of low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome, but it also causes between 19,000 and 141,000 "spontaneous abortions," or miscarriages, with a "best estimate" of about 115,000 of them per year.

ABC News asked a number of pro-life lawmakers to comment on the tobacco-abortion story. When they refused, the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, executive director of the pro-life Christian Defense Coalition, blasted them on the air. "It's hypocrisy," said Mahoney, who lost his mother, a heavy smoker, to cancer. "Those of us in the pro-life movement need to call them out on that and say, 'What are you going to stand for? Tobacco growers or the sanctity of life?'"

Smoking and the Unborn, By William Saletan
http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/MJ96/saletan2.html


3) What's wrong with nicotine and other tobacco products?

Nicotine and its effect

"All tobacco products contain substantial amounts of nicotine, a powerful drug, which acts in the brain and throughout the body. With each cigarette smoked, this powerful drug exerts its effects.
The chemical and behavioral processes that determine nicotine/tobacco addiction are similar to those which determine addiction to other drugs. According to the U.S. Surgeon General's 1988 Report, nicotine is more addictive than any other drug, including cocaine, heroin, opium, and marijuana.

However, research shows that smoking is particularly dangerous for teens because their bodies are still developing and the 4,000 chemicals (including 200 known poisons) in cigarette smoke can adversely affect this process."
http://www.nicotinefreekids.com/Frames/Auth1.html

"Two or three drops of nicotine, if taken all at once, could kill an average person."

Cigars and Pipes as Lethal as Cigarettes, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), World Health Organization, April 19, 1999
Pipe Smoking, Loren Stein
Copyright © 2001 Consumer Health Interactive

 

"Tobacco has been used by humans for more than 1,600 years, and its associated medical problems have been known for more than 400 years. This is not a newly-discovered hazard to our health. Tobacco seeds were found in archaeological excavations in Mexico and Peru; and in 1633, Sultan Morad IV of Costantinople made smoking tobacco a capital offense, punishable by death. He held frequent public executions to support that decision. The first Romanov Czar of Russia, Mikhail Feodorovich, declared severe penalties for anyone caught smoking. By the late 1700s, King James I of England was strongly opposed to tobacco use, declaring it to be "a custome lothsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." He urged its prohibition and increased tobacco duty taxes by 4,000 percent. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, nearly every state in the United States had some type of law against cigarettes or other uses of tobacco.

In 1761 Dr. John Hill published the first medical paper linking tobacco use and cancer (nasal); and a Cambridge, England physician published in 1789 a more extensive treatise on the dangers of using snuff. By 1964 more than 6,000 studies had been published in the world's medical literature on the health problems associated with the use of tobacco. By 1994 that literature had increased to more than 60,000 publications. We know smoking is dangerous and deadly; it is also wasteful. The land devoted to tobacco crop production today could be used to feed 10 to 20 million people a year, if planted in grains or other edible crops."

http://home.mira.net/~antiviv/article2.htm

What does nicotine do?

"Nicotine, an alkaloid poison found in nature only in tobacco, is a powerful stimulant to the brain and central nervous system. However, it can also have a depressant effect. Nicotine causes blood pressure to rise and increase heart rate by as many as 33 beats a minute. The first daily dose of nicotine stimulates the large bowel, while curbing appetite and slowing digestion. It also lowers skin temperature and reduces blood circulation in the legs and arms. Nicotine, in new smokers, brings on nausea. In fact, it is always nauseating to any smoker who gets too much of it -- sixty milligrams of nicotine -- by paralyzing breathing. It's about as lethal as cyanide. The reason it doesn't kill smokers quickly is that they take tiny doses, which are quickly metabolized and excreted by the body."
http://www.canoe.ca/HealthReference/cancer_smoking1.html

What in cigarette smoke causes disease?

"Cigarette smoke "tar" is made of several thousand solid chemicals, many of which have been implicated in disease. Among the chemicals in cigarette smoke are acids, glycerol, glycol, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, and such corrosive gases as hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Heart and circulatory disease, lung and other cancers, emphysems and chronic bronchitis have been experimentally linked with certain of these substances. All these conditions are disabling and potentially lethal."

What is the effect of carbon monoxide (CO) in cigarette smoke?

"Carbon monoxide (CO), which makes up about 4% of the smoke of the average cigarette, has a stronger affinity for red blood cells than does oxygen-which red blood cells are meant to distribute to the body's tissues. Thus, CO in smoke will replace the oxygen in red cells, forming carboxyhemoglobin (Cohb). On average, smokers have from 2.5% to 13.5% more Cohb in their blood than non-smokers. While nicotine causes the heart to work harder, Cohb deprives it of the extra oxygen this demands. CO also promotes cholesterol deposits in arteries. It impairs vision and judgment, and reduces attentiveness to sounds. Thus, CO is dangerous to drivers, reduces athletic performance, and poses particular hazards to flight crews."

Has it been scientifically proven that cigarette smoking causes cancer?

"Smoking is estimated to be responsible for 30% of all cancer deaths and specifically related to about 87% of lung cancer cases. It is also a contributory factor for the development of cancer of the throat, mouth, bladder, kidney and pancreas."

"According to the 1989 Surgeon General's report, 43 human and/or animal carcinogens have been found in tobacco smoke. A number of others are cocarcinogens -- that is, they produce cancer when combined with other chemicals present in smoke. Some are tumor promoters; once a cancer starts, they cause it to grow faster. These effects have been identified in the standard "bioassays" used by the government and by the cigarette industry -- painting tar on the shaved backs of mice, or exposing animals to smoke gases. Anything that causes skin tumors -- even noncancerous tumors -- on mice is assumed to be hazardous for smokers; the inside of the lungs is made up of tissues very much like those of skin. And mouse skin is similar to human skin."
http://www.canoe.ca/HealthReference/cancer_smoking1.html

Selling Poisons

"Today about 600 different compound routinely are added to domestic cigarette brands, yet no routine testing is performed to determine whether these compounds pose any additional health risk to the smoker when they are burned in a cigarette."
Freeman HP (1996) Foreword. National Cancer Institute Monographs, 7:iv.

"Cigarette smoke is far more than a triad of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide.10 The estimated number of compounds in tobacco smoke exceeds 4,000, including many that are pharmacologically active, toxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic."

US Department of Health and Human Services (1989) Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress. A Report of the Surgeon General, 1989. DHHS Publication No. (CDC) 89-8411. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health.

http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html

Illness and Deaths

"In 1989, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report that concluded that cigarettes and other forms of tobacco, such as cigars, pipe tobacco, and chewing tobacco, are addictive and that nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction. In addition, the report determined that smoking was a major cause of stroke and the third leading cause of death in the United States."

"According to the U.S. Surgeon General, smoking cigarettes is "the primary cause of drug interactions in man." That is, the effects of any medication taken by a patient may be changed or rendered ineffective by smoking. Diagnostic tests may give seriously inaccurate results in smokers."
http://www.canoe.ca/HealthReference/cancer_smoking1.html

"Once a smoker quits, it takes about 15 years for that person's risk of developing tobacco-related cancers to decrease to a level approaching that of a nonsmoker."
Wynder EL & Stellman SD (1977) Comparative epidemiology of tobacco-related cancers. Cancer Research, 37:4620.
http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html

Selling Addiction And Death

"Moreover, nicotine is addictive. We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms." Addison Yeaman, vice president and general counsel, Brown and Williamson, 1963 {1802.05 p. 4}.
"At the best, the probabilities are that some combination of constituents of smoke will be found conducive to the onset of cancer or to create an environment in which cancer is more likely to occur." Addison Yeaman, vice president and general counsel, B&W, 1963 {1802.05 p. 1}.

Public Versus Private Statements Made By The Tobacco Industry
http://www.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/cigpapers/book/chapter1/table1.1.html

"Disclosure of company documents, largely in the US, shows that manipulation of cigarette formulation is a key strategy. Many people now argue, for instance, that Marlboro's dominance of the cigarette market is as much due to the use of ammonia in their tobacco as it is to the ubiquitous cowboy (12). The ammonia enables the smoker to get quicker and more acute access to the nicotine, a necessity for the established smoker and a valuable hook for the starter. Similarly, the addition of organic salts to tobacco makes the smoke more palatable, especially to the new customer."
ASH. Tobacco additives: cigarette engineering and nicotine addiction. 1999. London: ASH.

http://www.ingcat.org/html/hastings.html

"More than 80% of tobacco users want to stop."

Shalala D (1996) Foreword. How To Help Your Patients Stop Using Tobacco: A National Cancer Institute Manual for the Oral Health Team. NIH Publication No. 96-3191. US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute:iii.
http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html

"Internal Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. reports from the early 1990's indicate that, even as cigarette makers deny that they manipulate nicotine levels in cigarettes to keep smokers hooked, most are adding chemicals such as ammonia to increase the potency in cigarettes. (Alix Freedman, "'Impact Booster: 'Tobacco Firms Shows How Ammonia Spurs Delivery of Nicotine," Wall Street Journal, October 18, 1995, p. A1.)"

"In a sense, the tobacco industry may be thought of as being a specialized, highly ritualized, and stylized segment of the pharmaceutical industry. Tobacco products uniquely contain and deliver nicotine, a potential drug with a variety of physiological effects." (RJR executive Claude Teague, Jr., "RJR Confidential Research Planning Memorandum on the Nature of Nicotine and the Crucial Role of Nicotine Therein," also quoted in The New York Times, July 26, 1995.)

"The cigarette should be conceived not as a product but as a package. The product is nicotine.. Think of the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose unit of nicotine.. Think of a puff of smoke as the vehicle of nicotine." (Philip Morris researcher William Dunn as quoted in a 1972 Philip Morris document and The New York Times, April 4, 1994.)

http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/nov96/handouts.htm


Fritz Gahagan, once a marketing consultant for five tobacco companies offers insight into his business:

"The problem is how do you sell death? How do you sell a poison that kills 350,000 people per year, a 1,000 people a day? You do it with the great open spaces ... the mountains, the open places, the lakes coming up to the shore, They do it with healthy young people. They do it with athletes. How could a whiff of a cigarette be of any harm in a situation like that? It couldn’t be - there’s too much fresh air, too much health - too much absolute exuding of youth and vitality -that’s the way they do it."
Quoted in World in Action, Secrets of Safer Cigarettes, 1988

http://www.ash.org.uk/html/conduct/html/tobexpld4.html


Pedophilic marketing

"To Stay in Business, the Tobacco Industry Targets and Recruits Children.

Very few people begin tobacco use after age 21.

The tobacco industry consciously aims its multi-billion dollar advertising campaigns at teenagers and even sub-teens because it knows it must attract new young tobacco users to replace those who have died or managed to quit.

Their own documents reveal targeting of 13-24 year olds.

The industry's own documents have indicated that it attempts to allure young people by making tobacco use appear to be a rite of passage to adulthood.

The tobacco industry's own documents include discussions of objectionable experiments on third graders in Virginia schools, and on college and university students in Virginia.

"We wonder whether such children [who display hyperkinetic behavior] may not eventually become cigarette smokers in their teenage years as they discover the advantage of self-stimulation via nicotine. We have already collaborated with a local school system in identifying some such children in the third grade."--1974 memo from William Dunn, Philip Morris researcher."

Tobacco Industy Misconduct
http://www.gasp.org/misconduct.html

Tobacco companies have dramatically increased spending on promotions that reach kids such as T-shirts, caps, and other gear with tobacco logos. In 1993, promotional activities accounted for 87.3 percent of the tobacco industry's $6.03 billion marketing budget.
Common Cause, "Tobacco Interests, Philip Morris Set New Soft Money Records," July 29, 1996.
http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/nov96/handouts.htm


"October 6, 1995, A leaked, internal RJ Reynolds memo revealed that the company discussed plans to develop a cigarette brand for the "14-to-18 year old." In a 1976 report, "Planning Assumptions and Forecast for the Period 1977-1986 for the R.J Reynolds Tobacco Company," an RJR executive wrote, "Evidence is now available to indicated that the 14- to-18 year old group is an increasing segment of the smoking population. RJR-T must soon establish a successful new brand in this market if our position in the industry is to be maintained over the long term."
http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/nov96/handouts.htm

"An internal 1984 RJ Reynolds report identifies younger adult smokers, particularly 18-year-olds, as the "critical factor" behind the success of every leading cigarette brand. The report says that "renewal of the market stems almost entirely from 18-year-old smokers. No more than 5 percent of smokers start after age 24. . . The brand loyalty of 18-year-old smokers far outweighs any tendency to switch with age." The document proves that the company understood the importance of attracting young smokers and appears to contradict the tobacco industry's longstanding claim that they only advertise to persuade current smokers to switch brands. ("R.J. Reynolds Called 18-Year-Olds 'Critical' to Cigarettes' Success," Wall Street Journal, July 11, 1996, p. B6.)"

In public statements, tobacco executives claim that they do not market to kids. Internal tobacco-industry documents, however, tell a different story. These quotes show that tobacco ads affect kids and that the tobacco companies consider children to be their next generation of customers.

"Evidence is now available to indicate that the 14-to-18 year old group is an increasing segment of the smoking population. RJR-T must soon establish a successful new brand in this market if our position in the industry is to be maintained over the long term." --Planned Assumptions and Forecast for the Period 1977-1986 for RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company," stamped "secret," March 15, 1976.

"Realistically, if our Company is to survive and prosper, over the long term, we must get our share of the youth market. In my opinion, this will require new brands tailored to the youth market."--Claude Teague, RJR, "Research Planning Memorandum on Some Thoughts About New Brands of Cigarettes for the Youth Market," February 2, 1973.

"I urge you to study the attached scroll list . . . for purposes of denoting stores that are heavily frequented by young adult shoppers. These stores can be in close proximity to colleges, high schools, or areas where there are a large number of young adults frequent the store [sic]."--J.P. McMahon, " Young Adult Market," memo to Philip Morris sales representatives, January 10, 1990.

"For legal reasons, we have been unable to directly survey smokers under 18 years of age (as will be shown most smokers begin smoking regularly and select a usual brand at or before the age of 18). . . . Over 50% of men smokers start smoking fairly regularly before the age of 18. . . ." --D.W. Tredennick, RJ Reynolds, July 3, 1974.

"But it must also be true that influential young smokers . . . have made brand selections based on product characteristics or advertising and promotion communication."-- D.W. Tredennick, RJ Reynolds, July 3, 1974.

"If it was legal to sell to 'em, we'd be glad to. But it's not." --Walker Merryman, Tobacco Institute, WHCS-TV, Portland, Maine, August 5, 1992, in a discussion about tobacco use among youth. 1707 L St., NW Suite 800 / Washington, D.C. 20036 / 202-296-5469 / fax: 202-296-5427"

http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/nov96/handouts.htm

"An estimated 7.4 million minors have participated in tobacco promotion campaigns by owning promotional items such as T-shirts, baseball caps, or backpacks, collecting coupons redeemable for such items or possessing a catalog depicting promotional items. Of these minors, 2.2 million are estimated to have collectively owned 7.1 million tobacco promotional items.(2) Participation in promotions was found to be as predictive of susceptibility to tobacco use as was smoking by others in the household.(3)"
(2) Coeytaux, R.R., Altman, D.G., and Slade, J., "Tobacco Promotions in the Hands of Youth," Tobacco Control, 1995; 4: 253-257.
(3) Slade, J., Altman, D., Coeytaux, R., "Teenagers Participate in Tobacco Promotions," presentation at the 9th World Conference on Tobacco and Health, October 10-14, 1994.

http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/nov96/handouts.htm


"And while the tobacco companies and the Tobacco Institute spent millions of dollars on their campaigns underscoring the ``adults- only'' aspect, they actively opposed numerous federal, state and local efforts to combat underage smoking.

"We never believed that they really were interested in stopping youth smoking,'' said Jean Forster, who studies smoking and policy issues in the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health . ``They had to get youth smokers. That's virtually their only source of new smokers. Their livelihood depended upon it. They had no choice but to attract youth.''"

Tobacco industry waged false battle against youth smoking
University of Minnesota,School of Public Health,St. Paul
http://www.ahc.umn.edu/NewsAlert/Aug98/NewsAlert82798/7288.htm

International pedophilic marketing support by our government:

The lobby of the office of U.S. Secretary of State contains carved molding of tobacco leaves, blossoms and seeds, giving additional meaning to the term "tobacco lobby".

"The country's major tobacco companies, working as a "tobacco heritage committee," helped finance the transformation of what was a '60s-modern reception area into seven elegant adjoining rooms, known collectively as the Treaty Room. Just inside one of the teal-and-cream colored rooms, a framed commemoration notes appreciatively "the generous contributions" of Philip Morris U.S.A., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., United States Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Lorillard Inc., the American Tobacco Co., and Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co."

"We find it most appropriate," the tobacco companies said in a 1986 State Department brochure unveiling the Treaty Room suite, "that agreements between the United States and other nations may be signed amidst decorative details and memorabilia of the commodity which has major significance and importance in the diplomatic, commercial and agricultural history of our country. ... Tobacco is intimately and historically associated with American diplomacy," the brochure noted.

Never was that truer than in the mid-'80s and early '90s, when Big Tobacco and the U.S. government joined forces to pry open markets that effectively had been closed to U.S. cigarettes. In that time, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative invoked Section 301 provisions of the Trade Act - which allow the United States to combat unfair foreign trade practices - at least a half-dozen times against Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, ultimately succeeding in the removal of import restrictions affecting American tobacco.

"It bothers me that we want to stop American kids from smoking, yet we don't seem to have the same degree of concern about Asian or African kids," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a supporter of the measure, said at the time."

"Malawi is an impoverished country in southern Africa . . ."
"So in 1995, the U.S. Agency for International Development began implementing a five-year plan, whose "Strategic Objective Number One: Increased agricultural incomes on a per capita basis" included the goal of increasing the share of burley tobacco produced by smallholder farms from zero in 1990 to 40 percent in the year 2000. Other goals included raising real per capita incomes for smallholder tobacco producers from $153 in 1991 to $278 by 2000 and increasing the percentage of women smallholder farmers cultivating burley tobacco to 45 percent by 2000.

The legacy of USAID's program in Malawi is mixed. Production of burley, the second most popular type of tobacco, has increased - from 58 percent of all tobacco grown in 1990 to 80 percent by 1996, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department's Foreign Agricultural Service. Real per capita incomes for smallholder tobacco producers have also increased, from $153 in 1992 to $255 in 1997, according to AID's 1998 funding request to Congress.But prices for tobacco, which accounts for more than 70 percent of Malawi's foreign exchange earnings, have fluctuated wildly the last several years. The Malawi kwacha (43 kwacha equal $1) has been devalued nearly 50 percent since 1997, and the government had a 2 billion kwacha deficit last year.

The "hungry season," which refers to the period when there is not enough food for Malawians, used to be about three months but is now much longer, by some accounts twice as long, forcing the government to pay high import prices for maize, a staple of the country's diet. Malawi's agricultural woes have been exacerbated by drought and farmers defaulting on high-interest loans for agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer.

Frank Giarrizzo, an American who has worked in Malawi for 10 years and runs his own agricultural development program there . . . He contends that farmers have converted land to tobacco they once used for growing maize and diverted precious, and costly, fertilizer from food crops to tobacco.

And, despite the five-year plan that called for a 40 percent increase in the number of smallholder tobacco farmers, an agency official said that AID's program never focused on tobacco, adding, "I don't think we told them to grow that (tobacco). That's what they wanted to grow.""

"A 1996 study of 10 Asian countries by a University of Illinois economist and a Thai public health professor is the most often-cited empirical evidence of that. Using a controlled study of country data, Frank Chaloupka of Chicago and Adit Laixuthai of Bangkok showed that cigarette consumption increased nearly 10 percent in those countries - Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Thailand - where trade sanctions were threatened under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act in order to abolish import restrictions on American cigarettes. "The opening of once closed Asian cigarette markets to U.S. cigarettes had a positive and significant impact on per capita cigarette consumption," the study said."

Support for Tobacco Trade: Up in Smoke?, By Maud Beelman and Zoe Davidson
http://www.afsa.org/fsj/Nov99/TobaccoTradeBeelman.htm

4) Cigarette smoking

"In 1998, an estimated 60 million Americans, or 28 percent of all Americans aged 12 and older, were current smokers. Approximately 18 percent (4.1 million) of youths 12 to 17 years old were current smokers in 1998.

The 1998 survey shows that current smokers are more likely to drink heavily and use illicit drugs than non-smokers."
http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/tobacco.html


Cigarettes and Other Nicotine Products

"Nicotine is one of the most heavily used addictive drugs in the United States. Cigarette smoking has been the most popular method of taking nicotine since the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1989, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report that concluded that cigarettes and other forms of tobacco, such as cigars, pipe tobacco, and chewing tobacco, are addictive and that nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction. In addition, the report determined that smoking was a major cause of stroke and the third leading cause of death in the United States.

Nicotine is highly addictive. It is both a stimulant and a sedative to the central nervous system. The ingestion of nicotine results in an almost immediate "kick" because it causes a discharge of epinephrine from the adrenal cortex. This stimulates the central nervous system, and other endocrine glands, which causes a sudden release of glucose. Stimulation is then followed by depression and fatigue, leading the abuser to seek more nicotine. Nicotine is absorbed readily from tobacco smoke in the lungs, and it does not matter whether the tobacco smoke is from cigarettes, cigars, or pipes.

Nicotine also is absorbed readily when tobacco is chewed. With regular use of tobacco, levels of nicotine accumulate in the body during the day and persist overnight. Thus, daily smokers or chewers are exposed to the effects of nicotine for 24 hours each day. Nicotine taken in by cigarette or cigar smoking takes only seconds to reach the brain but has a direct effect on the body for up to 30 minutes.

Research has shown that stress and anxiety affect nicotine tolerance and dependence. The stress hormone corticosterone reduces the effects of nicotine; therefore, more nicotine must be consumed to achieve the same effect. This increases tolerance to nicotine and leads to increased dependence. Studies in animals have also shown that stress can directly cause relapse to nicotine self-administration after a period of abstinence.

Other studies have shown that animals cannot discriminate between the effects of nicotine and the effects of cocaine. Studies have also shown that nicotine self-administration sensitizes animals to self-administer cocaine more readily. Addiction to nicotine results in withdrawal symptoms when a person tries to stop smoking. For example, a study found that when chronic smokers were deprived of cigarettes for 24 hours, they had increased anger, hostility, and aggression, and loss of social cooperation. Persons suffering from withdrawal also take longer to regain emotional equilibrium following stress. During periods of abstinence and/or craving, smokers have shown impairment across a wide range of psychomotor and cognitive functions, such as language comprehension.

Women who smoke generally have earlier menopause. If women smoke cigarettes and also take oral contraceptives, they are more prone to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases than are other smokers; this is especially true for women older than 30.

Adolescent smokeless tobacco users are more likely than nonusers to become cigarette smokers. Behavioral research is beginning to explain how social influences, such as observing adults or other peers smoking, affect whether adolescents begin to smoke cigarettes. Research has shown that teens are generally resistant to many kinds of anti-smoking messages.

In addition to nicotine, cigarette smoke is primarily composed of a dozen gases (mainly carbon monoxide) and tar. The tar in a cigarette, which varies from about 15 mg for a regular cigarette to 7 mg in a low-tar cigarette, exposes the user to a high expectancy rate of lung cancer, emphysema, and bronchial disorders. The carbon monoxide in the smoke increases the chance of cardiovascular diseases."'
http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/tobacco.html

Cigarette smoking causes:

-lung cancer
-laryngeal cancer
-oral cancer
-esophageal cancer
-bladder cancer
-coronary heart disease
-chronic bronchitis
-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
-atherosclerotic peripheral vascular disease
-increased risk of developing duodenal and gastric ulcers
-intrauterine growth retardation
-low-birthweight babies
-increased risk of babies dying from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
-women to have natural menopause 1 to 2 years early
-cerebrovascular disease (stroke)
-cancer of the uterine cervix

In addition, cigarette smoking is a probable cause of:

-pancreas cancer
-kidney cancer
-stomach cancer
-peptic ulcer disease
-unsuccessful pregnancies
-increased infant mortality

Overall mortality risk is 2 times higher in cigarette smokers than in nonsmokers.

Sources:
US Department of Health and Human Services (1990) The Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation. A Report of the Surgeon General, 1990. DHHS Publication No. (CDC) 90-8416. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health.

US Department of Health and Human Services (1989) Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress. A Report of the Surgeon General, 1989. DHHS Publication No. (CDC) 89-8411. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health.

Blair PS, Fleming PJ, Bensley D, Smith I, Bacon C, Taylor E, Berry J, Golding J, & Tripp J (1996) Smoking and the sudden infant death syndrome: results from 1993-5 case-control study for confidential inquiry into stillbirths and deaths in infancy. British Medical Journal, 313:195-8.

Shopland DR & Burns DM (1993) Medical and public health implications of tobacco addiction. Orleans CT & Slade J (Editors). Nicotine Addiction: Principles and Management:122.

Tobacco Facts for the Clinician, August 1998
http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html

5) Cigar Smoking

"Cigar - general term for a product made of tobacco leaves or parts of leaves rolled together and covered with a binder and wrapper, in contrast to a cigarette which is made of fine tobacco strands; first smoked by the Mayans and other indigenous peoples of Central America."
Voges E (1984) Tobacco Encyclopedia. Mainz: Germany Tobacco International, p. 74.

"Cigar smoking causes cancers of the lung, larynx, esophagus, and oral cavity (lip, tongue, mouth, and throat). It is strongly associated with cancer of the pancreas and increases the risk for coronary heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary (lung) disease.

Smoking 1 to 2 cigars per day doubles one's risk of having oral and esophageal cancer compared to a nonsmoker.

A single cigar may contain as much tobacco as a pack of cigarettes.

Since 1993, cigar use in the U.S. has increased nearly 50%.

Teenage boys are 2 times as likely to smoke cigars as teenage girls. Adult males are 8 times more likely than adult females to smoke cigars."

National Cancer Institute (1998) Background on cigar monograph - Cigars: Health Effects and Trends. NCI Communications Release. April 10, 1998.

"The average cigar has between 10 and 400 times the amount of nicotine as the average cigarette.

Secondhand cigar smoke is more poisonous than secondhand cigarette smoke. A single smoking cigar in an unventilated room produces the equivalent air pollution of 43 burning cigarettes."

Vankevich PJ (1997) The healthcare provider fact sheet on cigar smoking. National Dental Tobacco-Free Steering Committee Meeting Report for July 28- 29, 1997. Supplemental report No. 18.

Tobacco Factsfor the ClinicianAugust 1998
http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html

"A recent report published by the Centers for Disease Control indicated that 6 million youth ages 14-19 had smoked a cigar in the past year, 1.7 million of these youth were females. Students in grades 9-12 who used other tobacco products were most likely to report smoking cigars. Youth who answered surveys conducted in New York state also reported no difficulty in buying cigars. Cigars may well become the next "gateway drug." Youth, like adults, may believe that because no Surgeon General’s warning appears on cigars, that they are safe.

According to the 1998 Indiana Prevention Resource Center survey, nearly one-in-ten Hoosier sixth graders have smoked a cigar at least once, as have one-fourth of Indiana eighth graders, and half of Indiana high school seniors. Twelve percent of Indiana eighth graders and one-quarter of Indiana high school seniors smoke cigars at least once a month. As expected, there was a significant gender difference in cigar smoking rates, with male rates much higher than the female rates. However, the lifetime and annual rates for females were unexpectedly high, indicating that Hoosier female youth are experimenting with cigar smoking. Among male Hoosier high school seniors, 67% had smoked a cigar at least once; 40.5% smoked a cigar at least once in the month prior to the survey. Among female Hoosier high school seniors, 33.4% had smoked a cigar at least once; 13.2% had smoked a cigar at least once in the month prior to the survey."

"Cigar smoking is on the foul-smelling rise, over 4.5 billion cigars were consumed in the United States in 1996 and pipes aren’t smoldering far behind in this dangerous trend.
When compared to non-smokers the cigar smoker has about a four times greater risk of dying of lung cancer."

"Manufacturers of small cigars called "blunts" also wink at the practice of users removing part of the tobacco from their products and filling the cigars with marijuana, even to the extent of making clothing and paraphernalia with the brand names of the cigars."

http://www.drugs.indiana.edu/publications/iprc/factline/cigar.html


6) Pipe Smoking

"Pipe - container in which tobacco is burned and the smoke taken into the mouth; the oldest form of portable smoking equipment; originated from the American Indians."

Voges E (1984) Tobacco Encyclopedia. Mainz: Germany Tobacco International, p. 243.

"Pipe and cigar smoke are much higher in tar than is cigarette smoke."

Ockene JK, Pechacek TF, Vogt T, & Svendsen K (1987) Does switching from cigarettes to pipes or cigars reduce tobacco smoke exposure? American Journal of Public Health, 77(11):1414.


"The pathologies most clearly associated with pipe smoking are a wide variety of oral and laryngeal problems."
US Department of Health and Human Services (1989) Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress. A Report of the Surgeon General, 1989. DHHS Publication No. (CDC) 89-8411. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health.

"Pipe smokers experience excess risks of cancer of the tongue, mouth, pharynx, and larynx."

Stockwell HG & Lyman GH (1986) Impact of smoking and smokeless tobacco in the risk of cancer of the head and neck. Head & Neck Surgery, 9(2):104-110.

http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html

"Another study, conducted in 1999 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France, found that pipe smokers are eight times as likely as nonsmokers to develop lung cancer. Pipes and cigars "cause cancer and kill just like cigarettes do," the study's authors concluded."
http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/pipes



7) Smokeless (spit) tobacco: Snuff, Chewing

"Spit Tobacco - there are two types of spit tobacco (smokeless tobacco) - snuff and chewing tobacco. Snuff is finely ground tobacco of which the user places a pinch (called a dip or rub) in the gingival sulcus. Snuff can be dry, moist, or in sachets (tea bag-like pouches). Chewing tobacco comes in the form of loose leaf, plug, or twist, and the user places a bolus of tobacco (a golf ball-sized piece) inside the cheek."

Voges E (1984) Tobacco Encyclopedia. Mainz: Germany Tobacco International, p. 293.
Christen AG, Armstrong WR, & McDaniel RK (1979) Intraoral leukoplakia, abrasion, periodontal breakdown, and tooth loss in a snuff dipper. Journal of the American Dental Association, 98:584.
Christen AG (1980) The case against smokeless tobacco: five facts for the health professional to consider. Journal of the American Dental Association, 101:464-8.

"Spit tobacco use can cause: halitosis, periodontal degeneration, soft tissue lesions, general systemic alterations, and nicotine addiction."

US Department of Health and Human Services (1994) Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General. Georgia: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health.

"In addition, spit tobacco users experience increased risks of cancer of the mouth and pharynx."
"The risk of developing oral cancer for spit tobacco users ranges from 2 to 11 times that of nonusers."
Stockwell HG & Lyman GH (1986) Impact of smoking and smokeless tobacco in the risk of cancer of the head and neck. Head & Neck Surgery, 9(2):104-110.
Blot WJ, McLaughlin JK, Winn DM, Austin DF, Greenberg RS, Preston-Martin S, Bernstein L, Schoenberg JB, Stemhagen A, & Fraumeni JF (1988) Smoking and drinking in relation to oral and pharyngeal cancer. Cancer Research, 48:3282.

"Short term spit tobacco use often causes leukoplakia (white, wrinkled, skin patches inside the mouth) which can, over time, become malignant."
"Consumption of moist snuff and other spit tobacco products in the U.S. tripled from 1972 through 1991."

US Department of Health and Human Services (1992) Spit Tobacco and Youth. Office of the Inspector General. OEI 06-92-00500.

"The nicotine content in one "dip" of snuff can be 4 times that of 1 cigarette."

Gritz ER, Baer-Weiss V, Benowitz NL, Van Vunakis H, & Jarvik ME (1981) Plasma nicotine and cotinine concentrations in habitual smokeless tobacco users. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 30(2):207.

"Chewers and dippers have a higher prevalence of excessive wear (abrasion) of the incisal and occlusal surfaces of the teeth. This is probably caused by the high levels of abrasive grit inherent in tobacco products52 (0.4% insoluble particle content in chewing tobacco, 0.6% in snuff)."

Bowles WH, Wilkinson MR, Wagner MJ, & Woody RD (1995) Abrasive particles in tobacco products: a possible factor in dental attrition. Journal of the American Dental Association, 126:327.

"Twenty-eight carcinogens have been identified in chewing tobacco and snuff.
Moist snuff is by far the leading source of N-nitrosamines in commercial products.

Carcinogenic agents in spit tobacco include:
-benzo[a]pyrene
-formaldehyde
-acetaldehyde
-crotonaldehyde
-N-nitrosamines
-nickel
-polonium-210
-uranium-235 and -238"

Brunnemann KD & Hoffmann D (1992) Chemical composition of smokeless tobacco products. National Cancer Institute Monographs, 2:96-108.
Slade J (1993) Nicotine delivery devices. Orleans CT & Slade J (Editors). Nicotine Addiction: Principles and Management:17.

http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html

". . . over one million adolescent males currently use smokeless tobacco."

Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People,A Report of the Surgeon General (1994)
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgryth2.htm

8) Second hand smoke

In 1993, the EPA classified secondhand smoke as a 'Group A carcinogen'.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Significant developments related to smoking and health 1964-1996. CDC website - http://www.cdc.gov

The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that secondhand smoke causes lung cancer in adults and greatly increases the risk of respiratory illnesses in children and sudden infant death."

http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/tobacco.html

ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO SMOKE (ETS)

"ETS (passive, involuntary, secondhand, environmental tobacco smoke) is a human lung carcinogen, responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in U.S. nonsmokers.

ETS has been classified as a 'Group A carcinogen' under the Environmental Protection Agency's carcinogen assessment guidelines. This classification is reserved for those compounds or mixtures which have been shown to cause cancer in humans, based on studies in human populations.

ETS exposure:
-can cause disease, including lung cancer
-is associated with a small but significant reduction in lung function
-irritates the upper respiratory tract
-increases the risk of lower respiratory tract infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia
-increases the fluid in the middle ear, a sign of chronic middle ear disease
-increases the frequency of episodes and severity of symptoms in 200,000 to 1 million asthmatic children
-is a risk factor for new cases of asthma in children who have not displayed symptoms previously"

US Environmental Protection Agency (1993) Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Fact Sheet.

"In 1996, approximately 15 million children and adolescents were exposed to ETS in their home, including 18.4% of Texas children."

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1997) State-specific prevalence of cigarette smoking among adults, and children's and adolescents' exposure to environmental tobacco smoke - United States, 1996. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 46(44):1038-39.

http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html



9) Teenagers and children

"The average age for first use of tobacco is 12 years. Although smoking continues to drop among all major age, race and sex groups, teenage smoking has not declined. In fact, the smoking rate for teenage girls has risen over the past few years. This trend is perhaps due to the increasing number of advertising campaigns directed towards the young."

http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/tobacco.html

"Tobacco products are easily available to kids. Every day, more than 3,000 young people begin to smoke -- more than one million each year."
Common Cause, "Tobacco Interests, Philip Morris Set New Soft Money Records," July 29, 1996.
http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/nov96/handouts.htm

1996 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse:
Among adults, men had somewhat higher rates of smoking than women, but rates of smoking were similar for males and females aged 12-17.
Approximately 4.1 million youths aged 12-17 were current smokers.

US Department of Health and Human Services (1997) Preliminary estimates from the 1996 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse

1996 Monitoring the Future Study:
10.4% of 8th graders reported daily cigarette use.
18.3% of 10th graders reported daily cigarette use.
22.2% of 12th graders reported daily cigarette use.

The Monitoring the Future Study (1996) Trends in 30-day prevalence of daily use of various drugs for eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders with 5-year trends noted.

1997 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System:
Nearly half (48.2%) of male high school students and more than a third (36%) of female students reported tobacco use in the past month.
Spit tobacco use was much higher among male high school students (15.8%) than female students (1.5%).
About 1 in 5 students (22.0%) reported using cigars in the past month.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1997) Tobacco use among high school students - United States, 1997. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 47(12):230-2.

http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html

 

10) Effects on children, infants and the fetus

"Pregnant women who smoke cigarettes run an increased risk of having stillborn or premature infants or infants with low birthweight. Children of women who smoked while pregnant have an increased risk for developing conduct disorders. National studies of mothers and daughters have also found that maternal smoking during pregnancy increased the probability that female children would smoke and would persist in smoking."
http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofax/tobacco.html

"The number of deaths from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) could be reduced by almost two thirds if parents of children did not smoke. Exposure of babies to tobacco smoke before or after birth increases the risk of death - the greater the exposure the higher the risk."

Blair PS, Fleming PJ, Bensley D, Smith I, Bacon C, Taylor E, Berry J, Golding J, & Tripp J (1996) Smoking and the sudden infant death syndrome: results from 1993-5 case-control study for confidential inquiry into stillbirths and deaths in infancy. British Medical Journal, 313:195-8.
http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html

"ETS [secondhand smoke] impairs the respiratory health of hundreds of thousands of children each year. The EPA estimates that between 150,000 and 300,000 cases of lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children up to 18 months of age are attributable to exposure to ETS. Of these, between 7,500 and 15,000 will result in hospitalization."

US Environmental Protection Agency (1993) Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Fact Sheet.

"In five surveys throughout the U.S., the extent of cigarette use by women during pregnancy in non-ghetto, urban regions has been reported to be between 22% and 30%."

Smoking Mothers More Likely To Have Hyperactive (ADHD) Children
"It was found that the carboxyhemoglobin levels (hemoglobin that is carrying carbon monoxide instead of oxygen) was concentrating in the developing fetus reaching twice the levels of that in the mother. The potential for second hand smoke effects could also be a problem as it was found that after birth, mothers of hyperactive children consumed an average of 23 cigarettes per day compared to 8 cigarettes daily for the normal control mothers." --Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, Vol. 20:183-187, 1975

Child Test Scores Lower When Mothers Smoke
A Study of 2nd and 5th Grade Students
"Results showed children of mothers who smoked 10 or more cigarettes a day are on average 1.0 centimeters shorter and between three and five months behind in reading, mathematics, and general ability when compared to the offspring of non-smokers, after allowing for associated social and biological factors (see fig.1 & 2)." --British Medical Journal, 4:573-575, 1973

Auditory Processing Reduced in School Age Children Exposed to Cigarette Smoke
"This present study, carried out by Dr. Joel S. McCartney, Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, found overall poorer performance on central auditory processing tasks [ his ability to listen to what a teacher is saying, to follow directions or to remember what the teacher has said.] (SCAN) among 110, six to eleven year old children exposed to prenatal cigarette smoke. Maternal smoking during pregnancy was linearly associated with the poorer performance on the overall SCAN tests which assessed listening skills in a noisy background and the dichotic task, which required the child to attend to simultaneous information in both ears and is thought to be a measure of the child’s auditory maturation or developmental level. This task involves a greater degree of auditory processing, aspects of memory, and word discrimination. Also of interest, it was found that children exposed to passive cigarette smoke performed more poorly than children of non-smokers and equal to that found in children exposed to "light" prenatal smoking."--Neurotoxicology and Teratology, Vol. 16(3), 1994

Math, Language, & Behavior Problems Elevated in Children of Smoking Parents

"Children of nonsmoking mothers generally were found to perform better than the two smoking groups (active and passive) on tests of math ability, speech and language skills, intelligence, visual/spatial abilities and on the mother’s rating of behavior. The performance of children of passive smokers was found, in most areas, to be between that of the active smoking and nonsmoking groups.
On the academic achievement tests, the mathematics score was the most lowered by active and passive cigarette smoking. The three main areas appearing more often in the Connors behavior rating scale were Hyperactivity, Conduct Problems and Impulsivity. Of significant interest, twice as many children in the active smoking group compared to the nonsmoking group were perceived by the mother as having problems in school. This is in agreement with five other studies showing children of active smokers have a higher incidence of misbehavior, poorer adjustment at school and increased activity levels. The nonsmoking group was rated as showing the best attention and cooperation." --Neurotoxicology and Teratology, Vol. 13, 1991

Nicotine Damages Brain Cell Quality

"Human reports as well as animal studies have recorded accelerated motor activity, learning and memory deficits in offsprings of mothers exposed to nicotine during pregnancy.
Observable effects included significantly reduced thickness of the cerebral cortex, smaller cerebral cortex neurons, and reduced brain weight. Also noted was an overall decrease in "dendritic branching" (connections to other brain cells), as seen in the camera lucida drawings at right. The present study also shows that the greater the dose of nicotine, the greater the biological effects upon the offspring. This research provides an excellent biological model to support the many other studies linking increased hyperactivity, attention deficits, lower IQ, and learning disabilities in children with parents who smoked during pregnancy. " -- Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 16(4) 1994

Severe Child Behavior Problems Linked to Mother’s Smoking

"The more cigarettes a mother smoked during pregnancy, the greater the likelihood her child would demonstrate severe behavior problems as the child became older. Women who smoked at least a pack a day had children with twice the rate of extreme behavior problems - such as anxiety, conflict with others, or disobedience, when compared with children of non-smokers." -- Associated Press - Florida Today Newspaper, September 4, 1992


Smoking During Pregnancy Increases Conduct Disorders

"Mothers who smoked more than half a pack of cigarettes daily during pregnancy were significantly more likely to have a child with conduct disorder (odds ratio, 4.4; P=.001) than mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy. This association was statistically significant when controlling for socioeconomic status, maternal age, parental antisocial personality, substance abuse during pregnancy, and maladaptive parenting." -- Archives General Psychiatry, 54:670-676, July, 1997

Children Age 14 Still Show Harmful Effects if Mothers Smoked During Pregnancy

"School performance of the smokers’ children was poorer than that of their controls when measured in terms of their mean ability on theoretical subjects and scored from 4 to 10 on the child’s school report, this trend being seen among both the boys and the girls and in all social classes The children of the smokers were more prone to respiratory diseases than the others. They were also shorter in length by nearly 1 centimeter (a little less than a half an inch) and their mean ability at school was poorer than among the controls for mothers who smoked 10 cigarettes and 20 cigarettes per day. The differences remained significant after adjusting for the mother’s height and age, social class as determined by the father’s occupation, number of older and younger children in the family and the sex of the child."
-- Department of Public Health, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

http://www.chem-tox.com/pregnancy/smoking.htm

11) The costs of using tobacco:

Health care -- $50,000,000,000 ($50 billion per year, 1993)

USDA Tobacco related expenditures -- $342,909,000 (1998 est. budget)

Premature deaths of adults -- 400,000 (approx. total per year, 1993)

Miscarriages caused by smoking -- 115,000 ("best estimate", perhaps as many as 141,000)

Deaths of Non-smokers -- 3,000 (yearly, due to secondhand smoke)

SIDS deaths related to second-hand smoke --2,640 (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)

Respiratory infections in infants -- 150,000 to 300,000 (due to secondhand smoke, 1993)

Hospitalization of infants for respiratory infections -- 7,500 to 15,000 (due to secondhand smoke, 1993)

Asthma attacks in children -- 200,000 to 1,000,000 (net increase in quantity and severity due to secondhand smoke)

Nicotine poisoning of children -- 7917 (ages 6 and under, 1995)

Deaths from cigarette-caused fires -- 1,000

Burn injuries from cigarette-caused fires -- 4,000

Property destroyed by cigarette-caused fires -- $4,000,000,000

Deaths from pipe smoking -- 650 to 2,820 (1991, official estimates)

Deaths of animals used for testing -- "millions"

Money spent on research -- "tens of millions"

Cropland used for tobacco -- 429,410 to 472,430 acres (amt. varies, 2000-2002)

Pesticides added to soil and the environment -- 25,000,000 lbs. (pounds annually for tobacco crops)

 

Advertising tobacco products -- $8,240,000,000 ($8.24 billion, 1999)

Contributions to politicians -- $8,410,514    (1999-2000)

Purchase of smokeless tobacco products -- $1,735,840,489 (1995)

Sales by largest U.S. tobacco companies -- $56,388,800,000 (over $56 billion, total tobacco product sales, in the U.S. for seven largest producers, 1994)

Profits on tobacco products -- $23,451,464,000 ($23.4 billion, seven largest producers, 1994, primarily on U.S. sales alone.) The profits are less than half the cost of health care to treat the effects. Internationally, the market is much larger. The Phillip Morris company alone, in 1998, received over $5 billion in income from international (non-U.S.) sales.

          

U.S. Tobacco Statistics

The six largest producers of American cigarettes are: Philip Morris Cos. ($50.6 billion in annual sales; employs 160,000 worldwide); RJR Nabisco Holdings ($15.1 billion in sales; 76,500 employees); American Brands Inc. ($8.2 billion; 43,000 employees); Loews Corp. ($13.6 billion; 28,000 employees) B.A.T. Industries ($28 billion; 200,000 employees); Brooke Group ($720 million; 1,450 employees).
(Source: Miami Herald, April 26)

The tobacco industry was rated by USA TODAY as one of the top grossing industries in the Fortune 500, with an annual revenue per employee of $229,372.
Source: Cliff Vancura, "Top Industries in FORTUNE 500," USA TODAY, August 12, 1994, p. B1. (sdb 8/12/94)

Philip Morris Cos. (Philip Morris USA is the domestic tobacco subsidiary)
Owns Marlboro, the most popular brand in the nation, with a 26 percent market share.
Paid $4.5 billion in taxes in 1992 and is the largest single taxpayer in the United States.

http://www.kickbutt.org/learn/industry.html

[Based on Philip Morris's market share and taxes paid, the tobacco companies pay about $18 billion in taxes every year. That could partially account for why the government doesn't do much about discouraging tobacco use.]

"Tobacco use remains the largest preventable cause of death and disability in the United States, producing more than $50 billion in health care costs in 1993. Nearly 400,000 Americans die prematurely each year because of their tobacco habits."

US Department of Health and Human Services (1996) How To Help Your Patients Stop Using Tobacco: A National Cancer Institute Manual for the Oral Health Team. NIH Publication No. 96-3191. US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute:vii- viii.

Bartlett JC, Miller LS, Rice DP, & Max WB (1994) Medical care expenditures attributable to smoking - United States, 1993. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 43(26):469-72.

http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html

"1995 --FTC reports tobacco industry spent $6 billion on advertising in 1993"

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Significant developments related to smoking and health 1964-1996. CDC website - http://www.cdc.gov

"About 66 million Americans are current tobacco users. Of these, 54 million are smokers and 12 million use spit tobacco. Tobacco use typically begins by age 16. Almost all first use occurs before the time of high school graduation."
US Department of Health and Human Services (1994) Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General. Georgia: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health.

"During the 20-year period from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s, the relative risk of fatal lung cancer doubled in male cigarette smokers and increased nearly fivefold in female cigarette smokers."
Thun MJ, Day-Lally C, Myers DG, Calle EE, Flanders WD, Zhu B, Namboodiri MM, & Heath CW (1997) Trends in tobacco smoking and mortality from cigarette use in cancer prevention studies I (1959 through 1965) and II (1982 through 1988). National Cancer Institute Monographs, 8:305.

http://www.nospit.com/TFacts.html

" . . . sales revenues to manufacturers of smokeless tobacco products have increased steadily over the ten year period from 1985 to 1995. Those revenues exceeded $1.6 billion in 1994 and $1.7 billion in 1995, and have grown by more than $100 million annually in each of the last five years."

FTC 1997 Smokeless Tobacco Report
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/reports/smokeless97.htm#TABLE%202

Tobacco sales

In 1999, the major domestic cigarette manufacturers sold 411.3 billion cigarettes in the U.S.

The largest tobacco companies (marketing in U.S.) also sell non-tobacco products such as food (e.g. Nabisco). Below are the sales numbers for tobacco products only, in 1994.

Phillip Morris--  $21,758,000,000
RJR --                   8,607,000,000
American Brands   4,100,000,000
Loews                   2,176,000,000
BAT                   17,920,000,000 (worldwide including U.S.)
Brooke Group         604,800,000
UST                      1,223,000,000 (smokeless products)

Total                 $56,388,800,000 

 

Tobacco profits

Phillip Morris $3.1 billion @ 69% =       $2,139,000,000
RJR $3.2 billion @ 75 =                          2,400,000,000
American Brands $470 million @ 60% =    282,000,000
Loews 594 million @ 70.4%                      318,176,000 (using industry average of 70.4% of profits)
BAT 28 billion @ 64%                          17,920,000,000 (worldwide)
Brooke Group 5.7 million @ 84%                  4,788,000  
UST                                                           387,500,000

Total                                                     $23,451,464,000     

Source: Martin Merzer, "More Than Just Smokes," MIAMI HERALD, April 26, 1994, p. C1.http://www.kickbutt.org/learn/industry2.html


Advertising

Cigarette advertising and promotion includes advertising using newspapers, magazines, billboards, public transportation signage, Internet ads, point of sale signage, promotional allowances to retailers, free samples, promotional items with manufacturer's logo (caps, t-shirts, lighters, sunglasses, sports gear, etc), public entertainment (auto racing, sporting events, concerts) direct mail, coupons, sponsoring sports teams, and public arena signage.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-tobac.htm

Low tar, low nicotine

"Research indicates that many smokers of "low tar" or "light" cigarettes compensate by taking deeper, longer, or more frequent puffs from their cigarettes. The amount of tar and nicotine a smoker actually gets also can increase if the smoker unintentionally blocks tiny ventilation holes in cigarette filters that are designed to dilute smoke with air."
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/smokealrt.htm

Children poisoned

"Cigarette and Cigarette Butt Ingestion — During 1995, the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) received 7917 reports of potentially toxic exposures to tobacco products among children aged 6 years [and younger] in the United States ( 1 ). Most cases of nicotine poisoning among children result from their ingestion of cigarettes or cigars ( 2 ). Acute nicotine poisoning is characterized by rapid onset of symptoms that may be severe when large amounts have
been ingested ( 2 )."

1. Litovitz TL, Felberg L, Soloway RA, Ford M, Geller R. 1994 annual report of the American As-sociation
of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposure Surveillance System. Am J Emerg Med
1995;13:551–97.
2. Ellenhorn MJ, Braceloux DG. Medical toxicology: diagnosis and treatment of human poisoning.
New York: Elsevier, 1988:912–21.

http://www.lungusa.org/data/

Fires

"Cigarette-caused fires are the leading cause of fire deaths, killing approximately 1,000 people in the U.S. a year and injuring another 4,000. These fires also cause four billion dollars in property damage each year.
To increase sales and profits, the industry deliberately refrains from producing cigarettes that are self-extinguishing.Despite a finding by a Congressionally-appointed commission that fire-safe cigarettes can be produced, the industry refuses to change its manufacturing processes."

Tobacco Industry Misconduct
http://www.gasp.org/misconduct.html

Animal testing


"Millions of laboratory animals have died, and continue to suffer cruel deaths each year, in obviously useless attempts to simulate what are entirely avoidable and preventable diseases and injuries in humans. These experiments have also wasted tens of millions of taxpayer dollars that would be better spent on education and prevention programs. One source of funding for such vivisection studies, however, will not stop: Manufacturers, in their desperate attempts to "prove" that tobacco products are safe, will continue to support any study that promises to shed even limited light on the situation."

http://home.mira.net/~antiviv/article2.htm

"Laboratory animals are subjected to a wide variety of cruel procedures in attempts to create human-like, smoking-related diseases. These include, but are not limited to:
-The induction of oral cancer by direct application of powerful carcinogens onto parts of their mouths or in rodent cheek pouches (an anatomical structure humans do not have).
-The induction of bladder cancer by feeding potent carcinogens to mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, dogs, and cats.
-The creation of esophageal tumors by forced-feeding of strong carcinogens.
-The production of extremely painful pancreatic cancer by exposure to carcinogens, by the use of deficient diets, and by surgical manipulations.
-Lung tumors are created by forcing animals to breathe carcinogens or via injection of similar substances.
-Rats, dogs, cats, monkeys, and other species are subjected to a mind-boggling variety of physical and psychological tortures in studies of the addictive effects of nicotine.
-Emphysema-like symptoms are induced in rodents, cats, dogs and rabbits by exposure to poisonous or corrosive substances, excessive oxygen, biologically active enzymes (such as meat tenderizer), tobacco smoke directly forced into their lungs, and finally by severe starvation.
-Brain damage to simulate strokes is created in primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets and rodents by surgical closure of blood vessels and injection of substances that cause massive blood clots.
http://home.mira.net/~antiviv/article2.htm

Croplands

Nearly one half million acres of cropland used for growing tobacco.

http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/nassr/field/pcp-bbp/pspl0302.txt


Pesticides

"Tobacco farming is also extremely chemically intensive, in part because it depletes soil nutrients at a heavy rate. Soil on which tobacco is grown consequently requires large amounts of fertilizers. In addition, more than 25 million pounds of pesticides are used on tobacco crops each year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, including more than 1 million pounds of methyl bromide, a neurotoxin that depletes the ozone layer, and 12 million pounds of 1,3-D, a probable carcinogen. These pesticides pose a risk not only to farm workers but to surrounding communities as well, because the chemicals can leach into groundwater or vaporize into the air."

http://www.greenscissors.org/agriculture/tobaccopr.htm

Smuggling operations

"International tobacco giant RJR Reynolds-Nabisco has agreed to pay the United States government $15-million in fines and costs after admitting in court that one of its subsidiaries knowingly aided and abetted the smuggling of cigarettes into Canada.
The charges revolve around 26 tractor-trailer loads of Export "A" cigarettes -- manufactured by the company's Canadian division, RJR-MacDonald Inc.
Thomas J. Maroney, the U.S. attorney in Syracuse, N.Y., said the guilty plea marks the first time a tobacco company has admitted to being involved in the international cigarette smuggling trade, which seeks to circumvent high taxes and duties designed to discourage smokers."

Tobacco News Online - 23/12/98, Stan Shatenstein - Montreal
http://healthwatcher.net/Smuggling/tno981223rjr-smuggling.html


12) We all support the tobacco industry with our taxes

Should an industry that nets over $23,000,000,000 ($23 billion) every year and destroys human health, be supported by taxpayers, many of whom cannot even afford health insurance?
Outrageous, but true. $840,000,000 in tax money going to tobacco producers.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides financial assistance to tobacco producers through price supports, non-recourse loans, crop insurance, research services, and most recently, direct payments. First established in 1933, the tobacco program stabilizes tobacco prices above market prices by setting production quotas that limit the quantity of tobacco farmers are allowed to grow and bring to market. In addition, federal price supports for tobacco farmers are guaranteed through "non-recourse" loans that allow farmers to use the crop as collateral and to forfeit that crop rather than paying back the loan.

Under a "no net cost" requirement enacted in 1982, growers and manufacturers are required to contribute to a fund that covers losses resulting from loan program operations. This program was established to ensure that the federal government was not losing money through the price support and loan system. However, administrative expenses to run the loan program are not covered by this fund.

Two provisions in the fiscal year 2001 Agriculture Appropriations bill (H.R. 4461) expanded existing subsidies to tobacco farmers. The first allows holders of tobacco quotas to receive program payments even if they transfer their rights to produce the crop to other farmers. This provision will cost taxpayers $3 million.

The second provision allows tobacco cooperatives to buy low quality tobacco (called Burley tobacco, which is grown in Kentucky) that has not been bid on by cigarette companies and then sell this inferior tobacco to the government at inflated prices. This measure waives the no-net cost provisions for tobacco for the 1999 crop and will cost the government $100 million for each of the next five years during which a tobacco crop is marketed, for a total of at least $500 million. Moreover, the provision blocks the government from selling the tobacco in the United States, for fear of displacing sales by private farmers. Thus, taxpayers will be left with an expensive, useless investment in a product that the federal government is actively discouraging the use of for health reasons.

For the first time, federal taxpayers are directly paying more than $340 million to tobacco farmers to make up for lost income because of low prices and tobacco litigation settlements. These direct payments are in addition to subsidies in the form of tobacco crop insurance, administrative costs for price supports, and non-recourse loans.

In addition, the majority of beneficiaries of the quota program are absentee landlords who don't grow the tobacco, but make money selling the quotas to real farmers. Moreover, many now may receive direct payments as well."

Up in Smoke Tobacco Program $840 million
http://www.greenscissors.org/agriculture/tobaccopr.htm      (emphasis ours)


13) To Stop Smoking:

"Nicotine is the only substance sold over the counter that, when taken according to directions, will kill you."

Who Me . . . Stop Smoking Again?
http://www.shpm.com/articles/atd/quitsmk2.html

"Stopping smoking is the easiest thing to do--I've done it a hundred times!"

Help me Quit Using Tobacco
Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center
http://www.mayo.edu/ndc/

The UK's online community for quitting smokers by quitting smokers
"UK community where you can get support, up-to-date advice and even have a bit of a laugh! Includes games zone, discussion groups, personal ads, chat and more..."
http://www.quitsmokinguk.com/

Cold Turkey Support Group
Multiple message boards for people that want support and help in quitting smoking using the cold turkey method.
http://communities.msn.com/ColdTurkeySupportGroup/letstalk.msnw


Addiction and Withdrawal, Benefits of Quitting, Methods of Quitting, Relapses, Weight gain.
http://www.nicotinefreekids.com/Frames/Auth1.html

"I almost want to quit . . . but not quite enough to do it."
http://www.heartpoint.com/smoking.html

Quitnet - Quit All Together
http://www.quitnet.com/

14) For further reading:

Secret Tobacco Documents Page
Private admissions, public denials
http://www.tobacco.org/Documents/secretdocuments.html


Tobacco Industry Misconduct
What They Did and Did NOT Do
http://www.gasp.org/misconduct.html


The History of Tobacco
From tobacco curing cancer to causing cancer. From beheading to Pope's blessing.
http://historian.org/bysubject/tobacco1.htm


Tobacco and Kids: The Facts
http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/nov96/handouts.htm

The role of tobacco manufacturers in smuggling.
http://www.public-i.org/story_01_013100.htm

International Consultation on Environmental Tobacco
Smoke (ETS) and Child Health
11-14 January 1999, Geneva, Switzerland
http://ash.org/who-ets-rpt.html


Tobacco Explained
Health, Nicotine, Addiction, Advertising, "Safe" cigs.?, ETS, Targeting children, the 3rd world, women, minorities, and low-income.
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/conduct/html/tobexpld1.html

Lessons of the Sixty Minutes Cave-In
"The nation has also learned of the growing vulnerability of mainstream news organizations, which are becoming relatively minor subsidiaries of huge global corporations with multiple financial interests. Top corporate executives are paid to concentrate on their companies' bottom line and stockholders' returns rather than on their news divisions' responsibilities to the public. That vulnerability was exposed last summer when ABC caved in to a $10 billion libel suit by Philip Morris (see "ABC, Philip Morris, and the Infamous Apology," CJR, November/December)."
http://www.cjr.org/year/96/1/60minutes.asp


Dark secrets of tobacco company exposed
Inside the restricted laboratory compound on the south coast of England, five senior scientists for BAT Industries, the world's second-biggest cigarette maker, were devising ways to make it harder for people to quit smoking.
At the start of the "brainstorming" session on 11 April 1980, Dr Robin A Crellin, the team research leader, offered an insight. "BAT should learn to look at itself as a drug company," he said, "rather than a tobacco company."
http://tc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/7/3/315

Tobacco-Related Programs and Activities of the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Operation and Cost
Jasper Womach, Environment and Natural Resources Policy Division, Updated July 6, 1998
http://cnie.org/NLE/CRSreports/Agriculture/ag-31.cfm

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