Cigarette Smoking: A Dangerous Addiction.

See INFACT: Originally created by Thomas Boutell, whose site oriented me to the Internet. His Activism is well meant and his sites are all well done and very interesting. Much to learn there!!

Nowhere has corporate hubris been combined with governmental apathy (or active denial) as in the Clove Cigarette Fad which emerged in 1984-86 and which was associated with  the hospitalization, surgery, and mortality of a group of teen-agers!

"Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States. An estimated 390,000 smoking-attributable deaths in the United States occurred in 1985 and more than 434,000 deaths occurred in 1988; in 1988, an estimated 1,198,887 years of potential life lost (YPLL) before age 65 were attributed to smoking." "The decrease in the prevalence of cigarette smoking since the 1960s has contributed to the decline in SAM (Smoking-Attributed Mortality). Maintaining this decline will require continued reduction in the prevalence of smoking. The human and economic costs associated with smoking require continued vigorous efforts to prevent the initiation of smoking, to encourage smoking cessation, and to protect nonsmokers from the adverse effects of ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke)." The authors concluded by suggesting several measures which include: 1) school-based health education, 2) decreased access by minors to tobacco products, 3) increased counseling by health-care providers, 4) developing, and enacting, strong, clean indoor air policies and laws, 5) restricting or eliminating advertising targeted towards persons less than 18, and 6) increasing tobacco excise taxes.(M.M.W.R.,42(33):645, Aug.27, 1993).