by Ken Kreps
©2000, all rights reserved
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To put this in it's proper perspective, let me offer the following scenario to you. Please read it and then tell yourself what you would do. It's late at night and you and your family are sound asleep. A noise awakens you and you get up to see what it might be. Quietly going down the stairs, you see a light has been turned on in your kitchen. You peek around the door and there, sitting at your kitchen table, is a known murderer. You've seen his face on TV as the serial killer who creeps into dark houses at night and kills the occupants with knives which he takes from their own kitchen. As he sits at your kitchen table, he's slowly sharpening your kitchen knives. You know you must get him out of your house to protect your family and if you have to kill him in the process, you will. Here's my question. Would you be thinking that there are only certain fair methods you should use to get this man out of your house or would you use any or all methods to rid your house of this vermin before he starts killing your family? I think we all know what we would do if a killer entered our house.
Unfortunately, there is a killer called cigarettes in many houses in this country and around the world. It kills those who smoke and sometimes, it even kills those who don't smoke, but live with someone who does. Lest you think this is a minor problem in this country and others, here are some brutal facts from The World Health Organization:
Health consequences of the tobacco epidemic in both developed and developing countries are devastating. By 2020, it is expected to kill more people than any single disease.
Currently, tobacco is responsible for three and a half million deaths worldwide - or about 7% of all deaths -- per year.
Based on current trends, that figure is expected to grow to ten million deaths per year by the 2020s or early 2030s. It is estimated that half a billion people now alive will be killed by tobacco products.
By 2020, tobacco use will cause 17.7% of all deaths in developed countries and 10.9% of all deaths in developing countries.
On average, lifetime smokers have a 50% chance of dying from tobacco. And half of these will die in middle age, before age seventy, losing 22 years of normal life expectancy. In 1990, smoking was responsible for 35% of all male deaths occurring in middle age (age 35-69) in developed countries.
These chilling statistics go on and on and I've mentioned only a few. Tobacco kills millions of people each year and, if not checked, will kill half a billion people in the first half of this century. If tobacco deaths were classified as a disease, there would be headlines in all the major papers screaming "Epidemic"
This problem hasn't occurred overnight. Tobacco companies have known the harsh truth about the effects of smoking for years and have not only systematically tried to hide these facts from the public, but have engaged in serious campaigns to increase the number of smokers in the world, particularly teenagers. For the love of profit at any cost, these companies, and their decision making executives, have lied to, and deceived, the public in any way possible. They've commissioned their own rigged studies to show that the "alleged" effects of smoking are greatly exaggerated. They've tried to position themselves as benefactors to mankind by giving large donation (from their huge profits) to charity. They did this while they raked in these profits from people smoking and dying!!
They've used every dirty method at their disposal to push this profitable addiction onto the world's population. They have no scruples or ethics and the only way to combat a deadly foe like that is throw away the rule book and go after them with any means possible. You can't be Mr. ethical nice guy and beat a killer who has no respect or regard for any rules. In a street fight, you use whatever you can lay your hands on.
There's a terrible killer in our house and I applaud any efforts to reduce the number of deaths it causes each year. The tobacco companies won't go away completely, but we can hurt them and reduce their deadly plague. Yes, I know, some people will pay $20 a pack, if they have to, in order to feed their addiction and, quite frankly, I'm not sure they can be helped. However, millions of people can be helped, and their lives saved, by hitting these purveyors of death right in the one place that hurts them the most.....their big fat wallets!! Some of the people most upset by the government's methods and success say that if these legal judgments (and the often huge settlements that go with them) continue to escalate, some of the tobacco companies might be forced out of business. Gee, now wouldn't that be too bad.
©2000 by Ken Kreps. This article may not be re-published in electronic or print media without the express written permission of the author. All rights reserved.
Ken Kreps lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife. He has written a number of published articles, essays and short stories, as well as numerous consumer and business pieces. Ken has also written scripts for Imagination Theater, an award winning audio drama series heard on over 150 commercial radio stations across the nation.