raisinbran20 asked
Forty years into the war on tobacco, it cannot be declared a success. In fact, it is the worst public health failure in U.S. history. Smallpox, cholera, polio and many other scourges have been conquered in this country. There even have been significant advances in treating AIDS. But the smoking epidemic has continued to smolder, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans a year. Some progress has been made, including clean indoor air laws, the ban of smoking aboard aircrafts and the removal of cigarette ads from TV, radio and billboards. But nearly the same number of Americans smoke today as did 40 years ago and many of the smokers today are young people -- the very ones an anti-smoking campaign should have stopped from getting hooked. Lung cancer is killing people at about the same rate now as when President Richard Nixon declared the war on cancer in the 1970s, and in 1985 lung cancer eclipsed breast cancer as a cause of death among women. Despite the attacks by the American Cancer Society and other health groups, cigarette companies have remained masters of their fate. Like the winner on TV's ''Survivor,'' the industry has outplayed, outwitted and outlasted the anti's at every turn.
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