Smoking

It is alleged that Sir Walter Raleigh first imported the ‘noxious weed’ into Britain from America and the smoking habit swiftly caught on. Today, the tobacco industry brings employment to thousands in the various growing, picking, curing and manufacturing processes. Most of it comes from America, Turkey, or the Balkans, but tobacco is shipped to factories for curing and manufacturing in almost every country in the world, although its ownership is shared between a few giant international combines. Cigars, pipe tobacco, cigarettes, and snuff, (another by-product) are subjected to government anti-smoking propaganda, a sharp decline in tobacco consumption is not desired by countries such as Britain, as it would result in an embarrassing financial loss.

Why, then, all the fuss? Why is there an increasingly large and vocal body of anti-smoking opinion? It is perfectly true that pipe-smokers always smell of tobacco, that snuff-takers have stained upper lips, that a room littered with full ashtrays and tea cups full of sodden cigarette ends is disgusting. even the smell of tobacco offends some people; hence the banning of cigarettes in many theaters and cinemas and the provision of non-smoking compartments on aircraft. But the real objection — so we are told — is the marked tendency of addicted cigarette smokers to bronchial and respiratory complaints, some of which are fatal, and most important of all, the high incidence of lung cancer.

Nobody denies that smoking habits are distasteful to the non-smoker, but opinion is harpy divided about the alleged medical harm. Statistics can be made to prove anything, and while doctors alarming figures allege a direct connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, the cigarette maker’s own research, understandably enough, seems to indicate that there is no connection at all, and furthermore that more lung cancer is caused by atmospheric pollution in industrial cities than by the smoking habit. So far, the medical case remains ‘not proven’, but it is sufficiently frightening to deter many people who have never smoked before from making start.

Furthermore, the doctors admit that there are degrees of danger The heavy (i.e. 20+) addicted cigarette smoker who inhales the smoke is most liable to lung cancer, those who do not inhale much less liable; pipe-smokers are much safer. To inhale cigars is particularly dangerous. Yet, Sir Winston Churchill who smoked eight or ten large Havana cigars a day, lived to see 90; but, the observers say, he did not inhale! Probably the dispute will not be settled until much more is known about the nature of cancer itself. But meanwhile, the propaganda gathers momentum both for and against. tens of thousands are spent on advertising in the press, magazines and on radio and television. Efforts are being made in Britain to ban this television publicity.

Whether or not to smoke, must remain a matter for the individual. Nothing is more likely to increase smoking than attempts to discourage it or even make it illegal. The curious schoolboy who has forbidden a cigarette at home will only smoke in secret. America, during the days of prohibition, consumed more liquor than at any other time in her history. But smoking, to any sane individual, is a vice to be discouraged whenever possible, particularly among young people, and it is quite distressing to see cigarettes drooping from the lips if young people whose parents and grandparents probably never smoked in their lives. they are certainly the victims of the clever advertising propagandists who make it appear sophisticated, or manly, or smart to indulge. Tobacco ‘goes up in smoke’ and is, therefore, sheer waste of money. At the very least, it affects the wind and is harmful to athletes, and it is an undeniably dirty habit. Also, it can easily become a craving and a necessity, and pleasure which becomes this becomes a vice.

Yet, despite all this, people go on smoking and perhaps it is only fair to put the case for smokers. If asked, a smoker would say that he enjoys the ‘taste’ of his cigarette, cigar, or pipe, but there is more to it than that. Life is busy and lived at a great pace nowadays. Nerves are easily frayed, tempers shortened, brains busy, but hands inactive. A cigarette soothes — during that difficult interview, or making that important decision. It also helps concentration, and there may indeed be something in the idea of having the mouth and the hands active as well as the brain. And everybody knows that a cigarette helps to ‘break the ice’ in social relationships and the phrase ‘have a cigarette’ is often a good opening gambit between strangers.

But the best advice about smoking remains this. If you do, cut down; if you don’t, don’t start!