A Teenager asks about SMOKING / by Betty Bruechert
habit. For years pastors, teachers, in formed mothers and fathers have been trying to impress upon young people the health hazard that smoking is. Now they have unanswerable support from modem medical research. I sug gest that all of my readers write the American Cancer Society, 817 S. Western, Los Angeles 5, Calif, for their free leaflet: “ To Smoke or Not to Smoke?” from which I quote the following: “ Do cigarettes cause lung cancer? . . . In 1957, there has been a series of events that suggest that the world of medicine and science is gradually making up its mind on this important subject: “ In the United States, an independent Study Group on Smoking and Health, composed of seven scientists, organized in 1956 to review all the evidence, published its report. Sponsors were the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, both volunteer health agencies, and the federal government’s National Cancer Institute. Most important conclusion of the scientists was: The sum total of scientific evidence establishes be yond reasonable doubt that cigarette smoking is a causative factor in the rapidly increasing incidence of hu man epidermoid carcinoma ( cancer) of the lung. “The British government started to distribute posters to warn the nation of the danger of cigarette smoking. Its action was based on a report by the Medical Research Council that the most reasonable interpretation of all data was that the relationship between cigarettes and lung cancer ‘is one of direct cause and effect.’ “ Dr. Leroy E. Bumey, S u r g e o n General of the United States Public Health Service, declared that ‘The Public Health Service feels the weight of the evidence is increasingly point ing in one direction: that excessive smoking is one of the causative factors in lung cancer.’ “ One of the most significant research studies in the field was the four-year epidemiological study for the Ameri can Cancer Society of 187,793 men, 50 to 70 years of age. in nine states. First, their smoking habits were listed and then as each death was reported, in vestigators checked to determine the cause of death and compared it with the individual’s record of smoking. Conclusions were based on an analysis of 11,870 deaths. “Highlights of the study presented to the American Medical Association in June 1957, by Drs. E. Cuyler Ham mond and Daniel Horn, director and
and how odious this habit must seem to non-smokers in public places. Every where I went, people were blowing cigarette smoke into my face. In the restaurant, I was enveloped in clouds of smoke — mostly blown my way, it must be confessed, by women. There were butts and ashes everywhere; the pervasive stench of stale tobacco as sailed my nostrils, reddened my eyes, and ruined my appetite. At a party, I was almost blinded by the fumes. It had never occurred to me before how grossly inconsiderate we smokers are. Standing on the other side of the fence for the first time in 25 years, I could see with what contempt and disgust we must be regarded by the abstainers . . . There is no democracy in the world of smoking. The smoker, by force, imposes his atmosphere upon the non-smoker. There are no equal rights — the non-smoker cannot close his eyes or his nose, cannot remove himself to a non-smoking room and must silently bear this imposition on his freedom to sniff pure air.” * 6. Smoking is an enslaving habit. Men and women depend upon tobacco to give them “ a lift” , to furnish them initiative, and soon they are slaves of an almost unbreakable habit. Mr. Harris has this to say: “ I was trapped in the house with a cold the other day and I had to write a column. There wasn’t a cigarette in the place. Red eyed and feverish, I bundled myself into a coat and walked two blocks to buy a pack of the filthy tubes, hating myself every step of the way. But without the cigarettes I would not have been able to write . . . The really valid reason for not starting this mis erable habit is that it undermines two of the most precious character istics of the human being — courage and independence. I don’t know a male smoker who doesn’t wish he could quit, who doesn’t despise him self for his insane addiction to the weed. I myself will not feel like a' man until I can swear off this habit . . . Every day, at my office I see men writhing with self-contempt because they are too weak to burst the bonds of their dependence upon cigarettes. The cigarette soon becomes the boss. And it is worse than liauor; we know that if we drink enough it will ruin our lives; but we cannot see the more subtle, insidious and slowlv decaving effects of that ‘harmless’ little weed.” * Surely this statement from a man of the world should stop any Christian young person who may be toying with this habit. 7. Smoking is a health-destroying
Dear Aunt B etty: W ill you please help me to explain to teenage fellows and girls why Chris tians should not smoke? I am 16, and a long time ago promised m y father I would not smoke until I was 21. Then I was saved, and now I have no desire to even learn how to smoke. But so many ask me why 1 don't smoke and when I say it is because I am a Christian, they don’t seem to think that is much of an answer. Jimmy Columbus, Ohio My dear Jimmy: That is the best answer there is for a Christian, because he should not do anything that does not please the Lord. I have yet to see anyone ask His blessing upon the cigar, cigarette or pipe he was about to smoke! How ever, here are some practical reasons you can pass on to these young people: 1. Smoking is an unacceptable habit to truly spiritual people. Do you know any real “ out-and-out” Christians who smoke, or any successful soul-winners who indulge in this habit? It is not consistent with a strong, Christian testimony. 2. Smoking is a dangerous habit. Scarcely a day goes by when the newspapers do not report a death from smoking in bed and loss of valuable watershed forests from fires set by careless smokers. A Christian does not wish to endanger his life and the lives of others if he can help it. 3. Smoking is an expensive habit. The costs of tobacco and the taxes on cigarettes rise continually. What greater waste of money can there be than to puff it away? A smoker can put a sizable sum into missions, or some other good cause, or even apply it to the family budget, if he saves the money thus thrown away. 4. Smoking is a filthy habit. Re cently a chambermaid in a hotel and a porter on the train both told me that their messiest chore was cleaning up after smokers and that women were worse offenders than men with their lipstick-smeared, half-smoked cigar ettes. 5. Smoking is a selfish habit. If any other personal habit were forced upon the general public in the way that smoking is, what a hue and cry there would be! In this connection I quote from Sydney J. Harris, columnist for the Chicago Daily News, who recently tried to quit smoking and woke up to these conditions. He says: “ I had never before realized how the cigarette smokers have taken over the world,
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