smoking heafth statistics

8/14/2019 Smoking Heafth Statistics

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Statistics are said to show that among the 60

s, some may

r or in greater number than

types of ailments-

.

These happen to be our greatest, medical

ont as the major

ous diseases ofthe past were "conquered"

: r e s e a r c h . There have been

.

Scientists cal[ these heart and lung, problems

. Though

.

We hear about laboratory "prooV" that' smok-

ncer. Mice have been painted,. rats injected~ with "tars"

l a b o r a t o r i e s

. Rabbits have

. Dogs have been forced to.

ious cells of! these

.

It is no wonder that an, American Cancer, So-

ciety ofticiall has said that "a clever enough

researcher can make almost anything inducecancer in animals, but his findings may have no

relevance to human exposure . "Somehow it's possible, the argument goes,

that, direct exposure to tobacco smoke can

d a m a g e c e l l s i n t h e r e s p i r a t o r y t r a c t . The human

hearti is not exposed! to smoke, and so there is

even greater guess ing about how it might be

affected .

The Problems of Guesswork

Simp ly b laming ciga r ettes fo r hea r t d isease

doesn't' help . In some countries not eveni sta-

t i s t i c s f i t t h a t n o t i o n . The government's National

Heart and Lung Institute points out that we've

lea r ne d so mu ch ab ou t ho w to t r eat hea r t ail-ments that we overlook how little we knowab ou t thei r cau ses . "We tend to obscure ourigno r ance," the Institu te says, " b y making it

seem that a p r ob lem, has b een solv e d w hen it'

has, in fact, been only half s olved . "

Emphysema, which makes breathingi difficult

is a kind of lung damage typically found' in older

persons. Docto r s p on d e r w hethe r , among othe rthings, it might be caused by inhaling somesubstance or whether it might~ result from some

blood circulation difficulty: In any e vent ', and

despite speculation that smoking has something

to do with itthe official view of the government

institute responsible for lung research remains

can d i d : "We do not know the cause of pul-monary emphysema, how to stop its progresseveni if detected early; or how to prevent, heart

disease caused! by emphysema . "2 tI 3f l


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Those who consider smoking a menace, rather

than an enjoyment, have acted as prosecutors,

trying to convince the public they have an air-

t i g h t c a s e . B u t i s n ' t t h e " j u r y" ' e n t i t l e d t o s o m e

serious doubts? For example :

Smoking, cannot be the sole cause of any ill-

ness, because in every case nonsmokers are

a f f l i c t e d t o o .

Research suggests that because a patient tells

a doctor he smokes, he is more apt to be diagr

nosed with an ailment "associated" in the

f a m i l i a r s t a t i s t i c s w i t h s m o k i n g .

Those statistics themselves are shaky . In

cases of fatal illness, causes are verified by

a u t o p s y i n o n l y a b o u t o n e - f i f t h . As one expert

says,, "meaningful mortality statistics can be

assembled only by analysis of postmortem

observations , not by guesswork, no matter

how educated the guesser . "

At the same time that increases in lung,cancerhave been reported, new techniques andequipment have made it~ possible to identify

more cas es with certaint y . Thus statistics can

help suggest the incidence at any given time ;

but they are of doubtful value in telling, us the

incidence at one time compared'with another,

or what'the real trend is .

Too many conflicting, reports are ignored in

the anti-smoking, messages firom "authorities ."

For instance, the American Heart Association

warns about' t'obacco but doesn't remind us

that, in Japanwhere the smoking rate is much

higher among men than in the U . S ., the heart

disease death rate is far lower . Or that the

U.S . rate has been falling for the past 15 yearsin the face of increasing smoking .

We are told' that more people have begunsmoking at~ younger ages, whichi suggests to

some that illnesses associated with smoking,

should' appear sooner . Yet the peak age for

lung cancer stays ri'ght'. around 6& and, ifi

anything, may be moving to older ages .

While women the world over have long since :

joinedl men in cigarette smoking, the lung

cancer rate in men is inexplicably higher :

A b o u t a 5 t o 1 ' r a t i o i n t h e U . S . , 2 t o 1 i n t h e

P h i l i p p i n e s , 1 6 t o 1 ' i n F i n l a n d , 1 5 t o 1 i n t h e

Netherlands .

Suchi observations, needless to say, do not

exonerate cigarettes . Yet, drawing conclusions

a g a i n s t c i g a r e t t ' e s i s e q u a l l y u n j u s t i f i e d .

Deceptive Propaganda

canard (kaneYd' . ., .), n. A l a l s e o r a b s u r d ~ s t o r y y o rr u m o r ; a hoax . . . -Funk8 Wagnails . S t a n d a r d

E n c y c l o p e d i e D i c t i o n a r y

Have you, heard these canards?

"300,000 peop l e di e each year b ecause t hey

smoked. ""100,000 doctors have given up smoking . "

"Smokers have black lungs ."

Where do these ritually repeated claims come

f r o m ?

Take the "300,000 deaths"' charge . One gov -

ernment official said years ago that such an

estimate would involve "making so many as-

sumptions" that' it might be "misleading . "

Yet, a year later, a : former advertising execu-

tive who just! doesn't like smoking, announced

that ci garet tes cau se 125,000 to 300,000 deat hs

a year .

Another government officiali agreed,, claiming

smoking was respons i b l e f or at l e ast 125 ,000

premature deaths a year. He acknowledgedgetti'ng the figure from the advertising man .

S o the advertising man was asked in a Conr

gressiona l hearing where he got his estimate .

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smoking heafth statistics

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