2 tI 3
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lung cancer stays ri'ght' . around 6& and, ifi
Those who consider smoking a menace, rather anything, may be moving to older ages .
than an enjoyment, have acted as prosecutors,
trying to convince the public they have an air- ∎ While women the world over have long since :
tight case . But isn't the "jury"' entitled to some joinedl men in cigarette smoking, the lung
serious doubts? For example : cancer rate in men is inexplicably higher :
About a 5 to 1' ratio in the U .S ., 2 to 1 in the
∎ Smoking, cannot be the sole cause of any ill- Philippines, 16 to 1' in Finland, 15 to 1 in the
ness, because in every case nonsmokers are Netherlands .
afflicted too .
Suchi observations, needless to say, do not
∎ Research suggests that because a patient tells exonerate cigarettes . Yet, drawing conclusions
a doctor he smokes, he is more apt to be diagr against cigarett'es is equally unjustified .
nosed with an ailment "associated" in the
familiar statistics with smoking .
∎ Those statistics themselves are shaky . In
cases of fatal illness, causes are verified by Deceptive Propaganda
autopsy in only about one-fifth . As one expert
ca•nard (ka•neYd' . ., .), n. A lalse or absurd~ storyy or
says,, "meaningful mortality statistics can be rumor ; a hoax . . . .
-Funk8 Wagnails .Standard
assembled only by analysis of postmortem Encyclopedie Dictionary
observations, not by guesswork, no matter
how educated the guesser ." Have you, heard these canards?
"300,000 people die each year because they
∎ At the same time that increases in lung,cancer
smoked."
have been reported, new techniques and
equipment have made it~ possible to identify "100,000 doctors have given up smoking ."
more cases with certainty . Thus statistics can "Smokers have black lungs."
help suggest the incidence at any given time ; Where do these ritually repeated claims come
but they are of doubtful value in telling, us the from?
incidence at one time compared'with another,
Take the "300,000 deaths"' charge . One gov-
or what'the real trend is .
ernment official said years ago that such an
∎ Too many conflicting, reports are ignored in estimate would involve "making so many as-
the anti-smoking, messages firom "authorities ." sumptions" that' it might be "misleading ."
For instance, the American Heart Association Yet, a year later, a : former advertising execu-
warns about' t'obacco but doesn't remind us tive who just! doesn't like smoking, announced
that, in Japan„where the smoking rate is much that cigarettes cause 125,000 to 300,000 deaths
higher among men than in the U .S ., the heart a year.
disease death rate is far lower . Or that the
Another government officiali agreed,, claiming
U .S . rate has been falling for the past 15 years
smoking was responsible for at least 125,000
in the face of increasing smoking .
premature deaths a year . He acknowledged
∎ We are told' that more people have begun getti'ng the figure from the advertising man .
smoking at~ younger ages, whichi suggests to So the advertising man was asked in a Conr
some that illnesses associated with smoking, gressional hearing where he got his estimate .
should' appear sooner . Yet the peak age for
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