Unit 15 For or Against Smoking in Public Places

1. Unit 15 For or Against Smoking in Public Places

2. Tobacco smoking • Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the vapors either tasted or inhaled. The practice began as early as 5000–3000 BC.Many civilizations burnt incense during religious rituals, which was later adopted for pleasure or as a social tool. Tobacco was introduced to the Old World in the late 1500s where it followed common trade routes. The substance was met with frequent criticism, but became popular nonetheless. Smoking kills one half of all smokers who don't manage to stop—as of 2007, about 4.9 million people worldwide each year. • German scientists formally identified the link between smoking and lung cancer in the late 1920s leading the first anti-smoking campaign in modern history. The movement, however, failed to reach across enemy lines during the Second World War, and quickly became unpopular thereafter. In 1950, health authorities again began to suggest a relationship between smoking and cancer. Scientific evidence mounted in the 1980s, which prompted political action against the practice. Rates of consumption from 1965 onward in the developed world have either peaked or declined. However, they continue to climb in the developing world.

3. Smoking is the most common method of consuming tobacco, and tobacco is the most common substance smoked. The agricultural product is often mixed with other additives and then pyrolyzed. The resulting vapors are then inhaled and the active substances absorbed through the alveoli in the lungs. The active substances trigger chemical reactions in nerve endings which heightens heart rate, memory, alertness, and reaction time. Dopamine and later endorphins are released, which are often associated with pleasure. As of 2000, smoking is practiced by some 1.22 billion people. Men are more likely to smoke than women, however the gender gap declines with younger age. The poor are more likely to smoke than the wealthy, and people of developing countries than those of developed countries. • Many smokers begin during adolescence or early adulthood. Usually during the early stages, smoking provides pleasurable sensations, serving as a source of positive reinforcement. After an individual has smoked for many years, the avoidance of withdrawal symptoms and negative reinforcement become the key motivations to continue.

4. Tobacco control movement • The tobacco control movement is a term used to describe organizations opposed to the practice of smoking, or those which advocate strict regulation of tobacco products due to their associated health risks and addictive potential. Rationales for such advocacy generally include concern over the public health costs of smoking, as well as the hazard posed to non-smokers by secondhand smoke. • The tobacco control movement was pejoratively referred to as the "anti-smoking movement" in internal tobacco industry memoranda, to describe organized threats to their business interests and denigrate public health concerns. It is still commonly, colloquially, referred to as the "anti-smoking movement" by both smoking and non-smoking persons.

5. History of opposition to smoking • Pope Urban VII's 13-day papal reign included the world's first known public smoking ban (1590), as he threatened to excommunicate anyone who "took tobacco in the porchway of or inside a church, whether it be by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose". The earliest citywide European smoking bans were enacted shortly thereafter. Such bans were enacted in Bavaria, Kursachsen, and certain parts of Austria in the late 1600s. • In 1604, King James I of England wrote A Counterblast to Tobacco, where he described smoking as: "A custome loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmeful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomeless." • Smoking was banned in Berlin in 1723, in Königsberg in 1742, and in Stettin in 1744. These bans were repealed in the revolutions of 1848. • The Nazi Party imposed a tobacco ban in every German university, post office, military hospital and Nazi Party office, under the auspices of Karl Astel's Institute for Tobacco Hazards Research, created in 1941 under orders from Adolf Hitler. Major anti-tobacco campaigns were widely broadcast by the Nazis until the demise of the regime in 1945.

6. Opposition to the tobacco control movement in the United States • There are Three forms of opposition to the tobacco control movement taken by the tobacco industry: Intellectual, Personal, and Political

7. Intellectual: Opposing tobacco control based upon the idea that smoking is not as harmful as people are making it seem. This form is taken most often by the Council for Tobacco Research (CTR) This council was funded ultimately by the big tobacco businesses (Philip Morris USA, RJ Reynolds Brown and Williamson Tobacco Co. and Lorillard). It was created to research the health benefits and concerns of tobacco.

8. Personal: Opposing tobacco regulation based upon smokers' personal right to continue smoking. This argument is based upon the personal choice to smoke and that government should not punish people for engaging in their own activity. • Political: Involves the larger companies electing officials that they know will oppose the tobacco control movement.