烟草的危害(英文文献)

1、qi zhang english 101 12/09/09 tobacco industry not responsible for smoking-related deaths as many people know, the cigarette smoking gives a rise to smoking-related premature deaths. “when a smoker lights a cigarette and inhales the smoke, he is exposing his body to over 2000 chemical agents, many o

2、f which initiate and promote cancer” (taylor 4). according to barbara w. melin, the author of helping a loved one live smoke-free, tobacco kills 1,100 people in the united states every day. that is almost one person per minute. between 1998 and 2025, tobacco is projected to kill five hundred million

3、 people worldwide. “thats a titanic every forty three minutes. it s a vietnam war every day” (melin 3). the estimated statistics of smoking -related premature deaths is over 400,000 yearly, about one-sixth of all deaths, and smokers can possibly live 13-14 years shorter than nonsmokers. today, cigar

4、ette smoking becomes the largest preventable cause of premature death globally (pampel 3), and many people are now proclaiming that tobacco industry kills smokers and considering that tobacco industry is the criminal who kills millions of people: “after all, if doctors are not entitled to such a lic

5、ence (to kill), why must an industry with an unscrupulous track record be allowe d to be legally licensed to do it”? (razak). however, what kills people is the smoking of cigarette not tobacco industry, and tobacco industry should not be held responsible because tobacco industry is not doing anythin

6、g that is illegal; tobacco industry is running under very strict tobacco control, and people have free will to choose to smoke. moreover, since tobacco industry has become more and more controversial, there are also very stringent constraints and policies on tobacco control and regulating, such as u

7、se-discouraging cigarette taxes, restrictions on advertising, and subsidized cessation programs. only because cigarette smoking can lead to illness and deaths did the industry become controversial. people sue tobacco companies because they think tobacco companies are the ones that harm their heaths.

8、 margaret mctear, a widow whose husband died of lung cancer after smoking 60 cigarettes a day, had been suing imperial tobacco for 12 years; she said that he began smoking when the habit has a glamorous image in the 1960s, and was not aware of the health risks. she eventually failed because the cour

9、t ruled that mr. mctear knew what he was doing and there was no proof that his cancer was caused by a particular cigarette brand (cramb). there are many similar cases against tobacco companies all around the world; however, tobacco industry is not as villainous as most people think. tobacco industry

10、 is just alike other industries in some way; it produces commodities, sells them and makes profits, and there are stringent legislation for tobacco use. many restrained policies on labeling are set for tobacco industry. rabin and sugarman state in their book regulating tobacco that “large, graphic w

11、arnings are feasible and are, in fact being implemented in canada. the warning system in canada features color pictures of children, of diseased lungs, of a limp cigarette (symbolizing impotence) along with pointed comments endorsed by the government about problems caused by cigarettes. the warnings

12、 cover the top half of the ma jor faces of the packs” (99). what is more, the canadian system also includes package inserts about quit-smoking advice to consumers. moreover, there is a policy on labeling in europe and some parts of the united states: since the cigarette chemical content measurement

13、does not indicate the amount of smoke that smokers actually take in, the labeling with tar and nicotine yields has been shown to be misleading. also, smokers mightconsider smoking low-yield cigarettes as the first step to quitting. due to the above reasons, terms such as “light ” or “mild ” have bee

14、n prohibited by the european parliament according to the council of the european union 2000 (qtd. in boyler 662). labeling restriction becomes one the most practical means to inform public about cigarette smoking risks. for instance, marlboro cigarette packages have the labels: “smoking seriously ha

15、rms you and others around you” or “smoking kills”.tobacco industry is accused of deceptive advertizing in the early years from 1920s through 1950s: “ironically, even before scientific evidence began to suggest that smoking causes lung cancer and other diseases, tobacco companies in the unites states

16、 were promoting cigarettes with advertisements suggesting that some brands were healthier or less irritating than others”( glantz 28); this deception did take advantage of consumers; however, back in that time, no one really knew about the facts of cigarettes; the tobacco industry was just taking ad

17、vantage of commercial techniques to make profits. the federal trade commission (ftc), which had struggled with the tobacco industry about the misleading advertisements on cigarettes impact on health, proposed very strict rules including required warnings about the health risks of cigarette smoking o

18、n cigarette packages, printing advertisements, and broadcast commercials as well as the listing of the content of tar and nicotine (pampel 74). in addition, there is a policy of the reduction of exposure to secondhand smoke. because of this policy, more and more public places are prohibiting cigaret

19、te smoking. there are several effects of this policy. the most important is that it contributes to reduction in smoking and smoking rates (boyler 665). furthermore, as the public smoking decreases, public health is promised, and fewer people are risking the danger of secondhand smoke; the environmen

20、t is directly protected as well. the effort made in promoting cessation programs also has great impacts on tobacco control. according to an article in south china morning post, the “tobacco company might be seen as being a leader in attempts by the industry to convince a doubtful public that it has

21、a sense of corporate responsibility. tobacco companies have put millions of dollars into health and education projects globally. and they have been enthusiastic about campaigns that warn young people not to smoke ” ( “tobacco companies”). the us health secretary alan milburn said “the government had

22、 launched$50 million education anti-smoking drive through abbott mead vickers bbdo (an advertising and brand management agency). which, he said, was the biggest budget spent on the issue” (qtd. in campaign). even though these actions have been considered by critics as cynical attempts to present the

23、 industry as caring and responsible according to south china morning post (“tobacco companies”), people cannot deny that these are real efforts, which tobacco industry makes to benefit the society, and these efforts really helped with social issues such as education and health programs. taxation of

24、tobacco industry is very large, and it is increased by the government continuously, because of the promise that higher tax would lead to reductions in youth and adult tobacco use (rabin and sugarman 45). fred c. pampel, the author of tobacco industry and smoking, analyzes that “most of the cost of a

25、 pack of cigarettes ($7.50in late 2003 in new york city) goes to taxes and retailer markup. the production, advertising, marketing, and legal costs of the companies equal only $1.45 per pack, and profit equals 28” (49). according to research done by keeler and his colleagues, experts who explore the

26、 relationships between state and federal cigarette tax increases and cigarette prices, “ estimated that a 1 cent increase in the state cigarette tax would lead to a 1.11 cent increase in cigarette prices, whereas a federal tax increase would lead to a larger increase in price” (qtd. in rabin and sug

27、arman 50). and this research also shows that the rising of tax correlates to tobacco control efforts. in the procedure of tobacco regulating, governments of all around the world play important rules. other than promoting cessation programs and policies, governments also benefit from tobacco industry

28、 taxation. therefore, on the one hand, the governments want to benefit themselves; for example, according to new york time, the national conference of state legislatures reported that in july 2008 that states were facing combined budget deficits of more than $40 billion in 2009. “raising cigaretteta

29、xes is one way some states are trying to make up the shortfall. in 2007, states collected more than $19 billion in cigarette taxes, and maryland, which doubled its tax to $2 in january was one of 10 states that voted last year to increase those collections. more states are considering cigarette tax

30、increases this year” (saul 2009). on the other hand, they want to benefit the public, which is very difficult to do at the same time. that is the reason why there is no place in the world that tobacco industry is totally banned so far. the smoking age is limited as well; in most places in the world,

31、 the legal smoking age is 18. “the current minimum age of tobacco sale is 18 years in nearly all states, but raising the minimum age to 19 or even 21 has been proposed” (rabin and sugarman 67). furthermore, the major companies have declared that they will not “target ” young people with their market

32、ing. “if it happens that an ad directed at a 20-year-old person also has appeal for someone at age 15, that is accidental, incidental, and not of concern to the company ” (rabin and sugarman100). according to american journal of preventive medicine, “the food and drug administration (fda), in its 19

33、96 regulations to restrict certain forms of cigarette advertising likely to appeal to adolescents, prohibited outdoor tobacco advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds ”( “outdoor ” 155).non-smoking signs are everywhere; warnings are on every cigarette package cover, yet some people,

34、especially young people, are still not well aware of the danger of tobacco. a recent survey of “15- and 16-year-olds in moscow found that more than half either knew no smoking-related diseases or could name only one, lung cancer. even in the united states, where young people might be expected to hav

35、e received more information, almost half of 13-year-olds today think that smoking a pack of cigarettes a day will not causes them great harm”(jha and chaloupka 31) whose responsibility is that? apparently the tobacco industry is not the one to blame and parents should be responsible to their childre

36、ns behaviors.so why do people smoke? some people smoke because their friends do; they want to fit in. some people smoke because they think it makes them seem more grown-up. other people think smoking make them relax and loose weight (cheir 21). however, none of those is the real reason. “the idea th

37、at one chooses to smoke necessarily entails accepting personal responsibility for consequences of smoking” (wakefield, mcleod and smith 297). people who smoke harm not only themselves but also people around them. tobacco regulating is strict, and the rules provide a stable and fair circumstance for

38、market and public. tobacco industry just produces as the commodities are demanded, and tobacco industry does not force people to smoke. it is their choice to smoke, and if they are hurt by their own choice, there is no reasonable excuse to blame the others. people might say that smokers cannot quit

39、smoking because tobacco is addictive; once people start to smoke, the element of nicotine makes them addicted so they can not control themselves to stop. however, it is not the chemical such as nicotine which makes people continue to smoke; what makes people addicted to cigarettes is people themselv

40、es. smokers are claiming that they lost the ability to choose not to smoke, which is not true, because the habit of smoking does not exist apart from psychological processes. it is the smokers mind that tells him to smoke, not the body, “does a car drive the driver? does a pencil write the writer? does a body run the person? of course not. people run their bodies, not the other way around. yet those who assert nicotine addiction causes smoking are