Cigarette smoking is one of the largest public health tragedies of modern civilization. The number of people who die each year from smoking-related causes in the United States alone could fill three jumbo jets every day, 365 days a year. This fact has long spurred activists to fight tobacco use.

Since the 1960s, anti-smoking ad campaigns have circulated in the United States. At first, they were funded by private, usually socially conservative, groups who viewed smoking as more of a moralistic problem than a health concern. But as time went on and the negative health effects of smoking Read the rest of this entry »

The Rationale for Banning Public Smoking

Although controversial when they first appeared earlier this decade, public smoking bans have become increasingly present in state and federal legislation. Read the rest of this entry »

Teens’ Vulnerability to Tobacco Advertising

While teenage smoking rates have declined in recent years, the battle to educate teens about the risks of cigarette smoking continues. An estimated 60 percent of smokers start smoking by age 14, and 90 percent of smokers are addicted to nicotine by age 19, meaning that only one in ten smoking adults started smoking cigarettes after age 19. These statistics clearly show the risk that tobacco company advertising poses to teenagers. Read the rest of this entry »