Americans have always attached a great deal of cultural significance to smoking. The social changes of the 1920s brought a greater degree of freedom, and smoking became openly accepted among the young and fashionable. During the 1920s in the United States, women in colleges commonly smoked as a clear statement of their equality with men. Through the 1920s and 1930s more women entered the workforce, and having their own income they were able to afford smoking. And around this time, cigarette advertising also became more directly aimed at women, which without question increased smokings’ appeal and acceptability to women.
But the question remains, why after learning in the early 1960s of the medical evidence about smoking…why didn’t that curb smokings’ appeal? There have been some theories as to why and here are just a few. One being most early media hype concerning the health effects of smoking appeared in newspapers and magazines, that more likely to have only have been read by educated white males. Sadly, it was not until following decades that health messages about smoking appeared on television or in campaigns aimed at at other population subgroups.
Another theory to think about is the role of tobacco advertising. George Washington Hill, the president of the American Tobacco Co. at that time, was an unconventional businessman, who recognized that a vital part of his market was not being tapped into. Hill believed that his sales would sky rocket if he could persuade women to take up smoking. And as women became more and more significant to the tobacco industry, they were the intended target of a forceful promotional movement.
It is very likely that for many women, tobacco advertising shaped a false impression of attractiveness for smoking and support to continue smoking, and has undermined the many health educational campaigns. And now this marketing effect that has done so much earlier damage can be expected to shrink now that most avenues of tobacco advertising have been blocked.
Now looking into the 21st century one knows that cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of illness and premature death in the United States, claiming over
400,000 lives a year because it openly increases the risk of dying from heart disease, stroke, emphysema, and a variety of cancers. So one looking at these scary side effects from lighting up would be inclined to ask, why would anyone choose to do this to themselves? Asking around campus the answer’s that were received were “my friends all smoke and so do I”.
But despite these daunting side effects 25percent of the population continues to smoke. One can definitely say that part of that continued smoking percentage is due to the fact that nicotine is highly addictive. And in 1988 the Surgeon General’s Report on the Health Consequences of Smoking declared nicotine an addictive drug similar to cocaine/ heroine. But, it is important to note that the nicotine itself is probably not the culprit of all of the negative health consequences, but the 51 carcinogenics ( besides the other 4,000 chemicals in one cigarette). A carcinogen is something that causes cancer.
See our bodies are made up of thousands of cells. In a healthy person, new cells are made only when the body needs them. In a person with cancer, the abnormal cells destroy the healthy cells, invading them like an army, then when cells start dividing even though new cells are not needed, a growth or hard mass forms. It could be small like a pea or large like a grapefruit. And a cancerous growth is called a malignant tumor.
Many of the chemicals in cigarettes are poisonous and if a person were to eat one pack of cigarettes, he/she would die.
Kristen Schaaf, Staff Writer
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