Smoking Still Kills

"Let's give the tobacco companies fits," urges the former U.S. Surgeon-General who brought about the warnings on cigarette ads.

Victor Cooper is an associate director of the Department of Communication of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

"There are over 320,000 premature deaths in the United States of America as a result of smoking," said former Surgeon-General of the United States Dr. Luther L. Terry in a June 4, 1980, lecture to the National Society of Non- Smokers, at Middle-sex Hospital in Lon don. British figures paralleled American ones, he added.

Dr. Terry was responsible for the Government Report on Smoking and Health of January 11, 1964, which had such a tremendous effect on the smoking habits and social life of the United States population. "Before the Report," he said, "51 percent of the adult population smoked. Today only 33 percent do so, and during both 1978 and 1979 there were decreases in the per capita use of cigarettes."

He went on to point out that "there has been a massive increase in smoking among teen-age women." Cancer-related deaths for this group have more than doubled in the past ten years. The percentage of teen-age boys smoking has decreased from 15 percent to 11 percent in the same period.

Dr. Terry's address at the Annual Genera! Meeting of the National Society of Non-Smokers was part of a brief lecture tour in Britain. He was accompanied by Dr. Wayne McFarland, a Seventh-day Adventist physician who co-founded the internationally known Five-Day Plan to Stop Smoking. The former United States Surgeon-General inspected the Seventh-day Adventist health facility at Roundelwood, Crieff, Scotland (which offers one-week residential courses for people wishing to give up smoking), spoke with representatives of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, and addressed students at Newbold College, Bracknell, Berkshire, who are in training as health educators.

In his lectures Dr. Terry gave warnings on several issues. He called for more adequate information on, and help for, youth—especially for young women. "They have more difficulty in quitting than males do, and the reason is not yet known," he said. As a result, "there is a higher incidence of prenatal and early infancy mortality." The effects of smoke on the fetus in utero was illustrated by a new film The Feminine Mistake, produced for the American Cancer Society. When a pregnant woman, Dolores Araugo, smoked one cigarette, her unborn child's breathing movements, monitored by X-ray, are seen to stop. Compared to a nonsmoker, "a smoker's child has a birth weight lower by at least one-half pound," said Dr. Terry.

The former Surgeon-General, a member of the Expert Committee of the World Health Organization, said that health educators had failed to reach the lower socio-economic levels of society with effective warnings on the dangers of smoking. Some 70-75 percent of this group claim to have tried to conquer the problem and failed. They need the help of such support programs as the Five- Day Plan to Stop Smoking.

"Another area of concern," said Dr. Terry, "is the involuntary exposure of nonsmokers to the smoke of others. It is injurious to those with allergies of hay fever and asthma type, and to sufferers from chronic heart disease, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. There is additional new evidence, both physical and pathological, that the nonsmoker may be damaged by 'passive' smoking." Action against smoking in public places has already been taken, and the movement is growing stronger. Twenty-five States have passed laws to control smoking in public places, and Dr. Terry expects stricter controls to be applied in the United States.

He reported that cigarette manufacturers were now diversifying their products in an effort to protect themselves. "Farmers," he said, "also need assistance to grow alternative crops. If the United States Government were smart, they would encourage this."

Tobacco manufacturers are developing a market in the Third World countries and liberally sowing the seeds of future ill health. Massive sums of money are being spent on advertising to convince the population of the emerging countries that smoking is a status symbol.

In the United States $600 million a year is spent on tobacco advertising. The health-related agencies cannot compete, but Terry called for an all-out attack. "Let's give the tobacco companies fits," he challenged. "But the problem is not licked," said the doctor, who was responsible for the United States Government warning on all cigarette packets and advertising materials. "Smoking is the single most preventable cause of disability and death." The motto for 1980, the World Health Organization Non smoking Year, was: "Smoking or Health the choice is yours!"


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Victor Cooper is an associate director of the Department of Communication of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

January 1981

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