Fraternity-Testvériség, 1962 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1962-09-01 / 9. szám

FRATERNITY 17 succeeded in “reducing the issue to confusion”. In an attempt to prove “no chemical proof”, the American Tobacco Company announced early in March the results of its extensive study of 11,000 of its employees. Although the smoking rate of these employees is twice that of the rest of the country, the employees lived longer and had fewer deaths from cancer and heart disease than did the general public. According to the company, “these results are in direct opposition to the hypothesis that cigaret smoking causes cancer and heart diseases.” In her letter of March 27 to the “New York Times”, Senator Maurine Neuberger of Oregon refers to this study. In refuting its implications, she writes that the Society of Actuaries reports that the rate of death and permanent disability claims for tobacco industry employees is sig­nificantly higher than the rate for comparable employees in other in­dustries. She goes on to say that smoking is a “grave threat to national health and it is a threat that neither the distortion of scien­tific data nor the most inventive advertising campaign can abate.” She has introduced legislation aimed at restricting the sale of cigarets and otherwise protecting consumers against “this unchecked poisoning of our population”. Tobacco companies account for 40% of all national advertising in college newspapers, I am told. Their ads offer students big prizes for cigaret wrappers. Not only do the companies try to prove there is no proof of danger from smoking, but they are stepping up their adver­tising, which in 1960 amounted to 157 million dollars! I believe that most of us who smoke cigarets in some degree of moderation are not prejudiced against others who do likewise. And so it could not be looked upon as a matter of prejudice against smoking if a great majority of us who do smoke were to damn the companies which indirectly encourage teenagers to start smoking, or to smoke more, if they already smoke. I, for one, do damn them for encouraging young people to start something which can become a terribly dangerous habit. But even more do I damn colleges which permit their student publications to ACCEPT cigaret ads! If the publication’s need and greed for a dollar is so great, then the publication should be dropped, or else it should, for the purpose of really making money, let all the bars down and throw their pages open to gambling casinos, vice dens and whiskey manufacturers. Per­sonally, I believe that is the thing to do. For then the parents of children in those schools would rise up in arms and see to it that all objectionable advertising were barred from student publications — or else the publication itself barred. If the parents would do this, they would THEN be as smart as the Italians. (Editorial, “The Fraternal Monitor”) JIM LOVE

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