VOL. 6, NO. 5
NOV. 20, 1964

Smoke now-pay later
Each year approximately 2,000,000 young people between the ages of 12 and 17 take up smoking. Authorities believe that if this trend continues, more than 1,000,000 youngsters now in school will die of lung cancer before the age of 70.

Cigarette smoking has definitely been linked with cancer of the larynx, peptic ulcers, and chronic bronchitis. Among male smokers under 69, death rates from natural causes are 129 per cent higher than for male non-smokers of that age, according to the American Cancer Society.

In the light of this terrifying evidence, why do so many young people continue to take up smoking every year? They apparently do so for a number of reasons, including pressure from friends, persuasive cigarette advertising campaigns, and insufficient knowledge of the harmful effects of smoking. Poor parental examples are another reason: studies reveal that young people from 		homes in which both parents smoke regularly are twice as likely to develop the cigarette habit as those from homes where neither parent smokes.

Closely linked with social pressure from friends and insufficient knowledge of the effects of cigarette smoking are the types of advertising campaigns used by the cigarette industry. "The image we want for cigarettes is that they are used by a fun-loving group," said the director of one large tobacco company. To create this image, the major cigarette companies spend over $140,000,000 each year on advertising and promotion.

A survey taken as early as 1958 revealed that 14.5 per cent of the 9th grade boys and 4.6 per cent of the 9th grade girls in Portland, Oregon were already smoking. The percentages increased each year, until in high school, among seniors, 35.4 per cent of the boys and 26.2 per cent of the girls were smokers. (This was in 1958: the percentage of teenage smokers has increased seriously since.)