45 years ago: U.S. makes first health warning on smoking

William Atkins
Sunday, 11 January 2009 21:10

Science - Health

A history of the cigarette is found at the Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs: “Chapter 26. Cigarettes ––– and the 1964 Report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee.”

Many interesting statements are made in this article but this one seems especially interesting (referring to a new cigarette product introduced in the early twentieth century):

“The size of the new cigarettes was also admirably adapted to the nicotine dose most people prefer."

And continuing, "It was therefore easier for women and children to learn to smoke cigarettes; the likelihood of nicotine overdose among novices, with such acute toxic side effects as pallor, sweating, nausea, vomiting, and even loss of consciousness (fainting), was minimized.”

Further information about cigarette smoking in the 2000s, is found on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website “Cigarette Smoking Among Adults --- United States, 2007.”

Health-cares.net discusses the various health problems caused by smoking. Check out "Harm to human body by smoking – danger of smoking."

Along with the widely-known dangers from first-hand smoking (the smoke inhaled by the smoker him- or herself) and second-hand smoke (smoke inhaled by bystanders in a room with a smoker), there is recent information on "third-hand" smoke, or the lingering danger that is present in carpets, drapes, furniture, clothing, and other materials long after the smoker has put out the cigarette).

Read the iTWire article "'Third-hand smoke': A new term, more health dangers."