Tobacco companies will start airing anti-smoking ads this Sunday, but the ads will be extremely muted, only saying that “More people die every year from smoking than from murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol, combined.”
Under court order, tobacco companies will also admit to this:
“Cigarette companies intentionally designed cigarettes with enough nicotine to create and sustain addiction.”
It’s a small victory for anti-tobacco and anti-smoking movements, but a victory nonetheless.
The real benefits have come from smoking bans, anti-smoking campaigns and cigarette taxes, as implemented by the federal government and non-profits like the American Cancer Society.
Today, less than 15 percent of adults smoke. In the 1960s that figure was as high as 42 percent.
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