Though the war over the health hazards of smoking escalated to a new level this week, it shouldn't be hard to sort out the truth from the various conflicting statements.
All the public has to do is decide which side of the dispute is more credible: The tobacco executives whose job is to swell company profits? Or the public health officials responsible for protecting consumers by alerting them to scientific findings about the effect of tobacco on the human body?More specifically, whom do you believe on the following points of controversy that surfaced this week during congressional hearings?
- The tobacco industry executives who repeatedly insisted that smoking is not habit-forming? Or the U.S. surgeon general, who points to a long series of studies showing that nicotine most decidedly is addictive?
- The chief operating officer of Lorillard Tobacco Co. when recently he publicly denied setting nicotine levels for particular brands of cigarettes? Or the same executive who in a private 1981 memo told how specific blends of tobacco could be added to low-tar cigarettes to significantly enhance their nicotine content?
- The industry executives who this week released a list of nearly 600 cigarette additives along with the claim that the are safe because nearly all of them are present in food items? Or the public health officials who note that just because a chemical is safe in food doesn't mean it is safe when burned in a cigarette and the smoke is inhaled?
- The tobacco firms that ask Americans to believe their product is safe on the basis of little or no evidence? Or such a highly respected publication as the New England Journal of Medicine, which recently spelled out the case against tobacco in specific detail? Among many other points made by the journal:
- Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, with almost one death in every five due to a smoking-related illness.
- The annual cost of health care due to smoking comes to at least $100 billion.
- For an individual smoker, the extra medical costs due to this habit come to an average of $6,000 over his or her lifetime.
- The cost of lost productivity due to smoking-related illnesses and premature death: $47 billion in 1990.
- The number of nonsmokers who die from inhaling secondhand tobacco fumes: 53,000 a year.
At this point, surely this much is clear:
The burden of proof is on the tobacco industry to demonstrate the safety of its product. That responsibility has not been met. On the contrary, what little credibility the industry may once have had is rapidly eroding.
Consequently, the very least Congress should do is authorize the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco as the drug that it is.