Smoking? Bad.

Monday, November 26, 2012

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler has ordered tobacco companies to publish corrective statements that say they lied about the dangers of smoking, actually laying out what the ads need to say. 

Each corrective ad is to be prefaced by a statement that a federal court has concluded that the defendant tobacco companies "deliberately deceived the American public about the health effects of smoking." Among the required statements are that smoking kills more people than murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol combined, and that "secondhand smoke kills over 3,000 Americans a year."

She has ordered the cigarette companies to use statements based on specific findings of the court proceedings which began in 1999 when the government brought charges against the nation’s largest tobacco companies under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO).  The statements Kessler chose are as follows:

·         "Smoking kills, on average, 1,200 Americans. Every day."
·         "Defendant tobacco companies intentionally designed cigarettes to make them more addictive."
·         "When you smoke, the nicotine actually changes the brain -- that's why quitting is so hard."
·         "All cigarettes cause cancer, lung disease, heart attacks and premature death -- lights, low tar, ultra lights and naturals. There is no safe cigarette."
·         "Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer and coronary heart disease in adults who do not smoke."
·         "Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections, ear problems, severe asthma and reduced lung function."
·         "There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke."

Spokesman from the two leading tobacco companies both said they are studying the court’s ruling and deciding on their next steps.  Now there’s a job a momma can brag that her child has landed and is doing.   I can remember pretty clearly  how my father, after reading the Surgeon General’s report that tobacco smoking may cause lung cancer, decided he should quit.  That was 1964 and he went from being a three-pack a day chain smoker to non-smoker overnight.  My mother continued to smoke the same brand in the house for the next year, but he never slid back.  I didn’t understand what it took for him to do that at the time, but it later years as I worked with smokers and gained a clearer understanding of their addiction, I gained new respect for his tenacity.  In any event, for those of you still smoking and living in a cave somewhere with no possible communication with the outside world for the last fifty years…someone needs to tell you that cigarette smoking is really, really bad for you.

I got home after dark and found the only exercise option left to me was a ride on the trainer.  I spent the next hour sweating and pedaling…and missing daylight savings and summer days.  Momma said there’d be days like this…

Bike Duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 120 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 850.