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Memo to Snyder: Don’t stop the radical reforms now!Recession tip: How about we not villify tobacco companies?
October 21st, 2009 | 
Author:
Dan Sherrier
WARNING: Reading some news articles may make your head explode.
Tuesday, The Boston Globe reported, “The state’s high court said yesterday that cigarette maker Philip Morris USA may have to pay for diagnostic chest exams so smokers can get early warning they have developed lung cancer, possibly opening a new front in tobacco liability lawsuits.”
So…You smoke cigarettes voluntarily–fully aware that they’re not healthy–and you should expect the manufacturer to pay for your diagnostic chest exams?
They're nasty, but you know that.
Have we given up on the whole “personal responsibility” thing?
Personally, I hate cigarettes. I’ve never touched one and have no intention of ever doing so. But I realize that’s my choice on the matter. Adults know the risks of smoking, and if they decide that the resulting pleasure is worth those risks, they are free to smoke. I’d advise against it, but they’re still free to smoke (unless, of course, they’re on the property of someone who prohibits it.)
Smokers are not free to be absolved of any risks–health or financial. You can smoke, yes, but you can’t smoke consequence-free, not unless you invent some new way to do so. It’s not a secret that smoking greatly increases your odds of getting lung cancer.
If you must smoke, it’s your responsibility to set aside some money for the inevitable medical bills your habit will lead to. Philip Morris doesn’t have to offer you bargains like “Buy 500 cartons, get a free diagnostic chest exam!”
Similarly, if you must eat fast food, it’s your responsibility to exercise harder to make up for it. Or should McDonald’s and Burger King pay for customers’ heart exams?
Vilifying tobacco companies may give some people the satisfaction of feeling morally superior. But let’s say they succeed in bankrupting and shutting down these companies. Then what happens? Lots of people lose jobs. The government loses tax revenue (which, granted, it would probably waste anyway, but in theory, it could go to things like better body armor for soldiers.)
Also, if they ever become a reality, isn’t it possible that these court-ordered diagnostic tests alone could cost some people their jobs? The company would have to recoup the expense somehow. People could lose their jobs, because some other people couldn’t accept the consequences of their actions.
Remember, no one is forcing anyone to smoke.
As far as second-hand smoke…No one is forcing anyone to shop or eat at an establishment that allows smoking.
People make bad choices sometimes, but I’d rather be free to make a bad choice and suffer the consequences than be told how to live my life. As educated as people are about the effects of smoking, there’s no good reason to vilify the tobacco companies, and there’s only one good reason to shut them down: If everyone decides to stop smoking.
I’m all for trying to convince smokers to stop. (I don’t want anyone to get lung cancer. Smokers, please think of your health!) But I’m not for making tobacco companies pay for other people’s choices.
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25 Responses to “Recession tip: How about we not villify tobacco companies?”
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Dan,
I appreciate the position you have taken on this issue. I am a smoker, but I will not impose my smoking in anyplace that would prefer that I didn’t. I know the possible bad effects that smoking can have on me, but it is my choice and my responsibility to absorb any costs from my decision. If I come down with some smoking related illness, I will not come knocking on your door to help me pay for the treatment.
Keep up the good work that you do….
Thanks for listening…
These wise old op-ed pieces get written all the time by children not nearly old enough to have known what it was like to live in an age when most people could not have imagined that a corporation could possibly do what the tobacco industry had done.
These unthinking blowhards didn’t live in a time when even the slightest link of tobacco to disease had to be disclosed to 200 hundred reporters in a LOCKED room.
They didn’t live in a time when the surgeon general’s health warnings were written by tobacco companies, or when these feeble warnings were subverted every day, in every media outlet from TV to magazines to newspapers to movies with bright, colorful, enchanting ads carrying quite a different message. And seemingly endorsed by the society as a whole–or how could _everyone_ be advertising cigarettes so profligately?
They didn’t live in a time when such ubiquitous tobacco advertising bought not just a healthy, fun message, but silence about the health effects of smoking. US News, Time magazine, Mother Jones, all lost plenty of money just for running relatively innocuous stories on smoking. In 1983, Newsweek lost over $1M in ads for running a vanilla story on smoking bans, in defiance of the Tobacco Institute’s pressure.
So these opinionators didn’t live then. OK. But that’s no excuse for being just plain ignorant today.
Check the latest news to see yet another report on just how much those precious tobacco jobs _really_ cost society. (“Smoking costs economy $31 billion”–http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26240871-1702,00.html)
Check the 9-year lawsuit USA v. Philip Morris, which examined the industry’s disinformation campaign, and found the industry guilty of racketeering in its concerted efforts to mislead the public with all sorts of scientific disinformation–including paid-for books, articles and letters to the editor.
Even today, as the verdict noted, the industry continues to pump out its PR on “personal responsibility” and costs.
And even today, that PR is eminently useful:
It provides facile talking points for uninformed, lazy scribes to regurgitate.
Thank you Gene, you very eloquently pointed out how little many people know about the history of the tobacco industry and smoking/tobacco addiction research. I have no problem with someone stating their view, even when it differs from my own. What I can’t abide is a commentary from the uninformed.To other uninformed people it may sound insightful….to the informed it smacks of ignorance and is so obviously not helpful to any real debate about the subject.
The problem with this simplistic ‘personal responsibility’ argument is that more than 90% of smokers got addicted to this drug when they were children, not when they were ‘responsible adults’. The tobacco companies ensured this by relentlessly promoting tobacco to young children (remember the Joe Camel cartoon character?) and carefully fostering the rebellious / cool imagery of smoking via Hollywood.
Tobacco companies knowingly targeted children with a product containing a drug said to be more addictive than crack, because they know that almost no adults ever start smoking. And the author wants to protect them from the fallout of their actions? Sorry – doesn’t do it for me.
This is not a well-informed or well thought through piece.
Let us not vilify Satan either, or drug traffickers, let us focus our blame those that gave in their temptations.
Nicotine has been repeatedly scientifically proven to actually be more addictive than cocaine or heroin, it is one of the most addictive drugs known. The tobacco companies actually manipulated nicotine levels in cigarettes to increase the addictive effect on their paying customers.
I became hooked on cigarettes as a teenager and it is tough to quit. But whatever my own responsibility is in the matter I have no sympathy for an industry that sells a highly addictive drug then tries to shift blame for the heart attacks, emphysema and lung cancer it produces. This is not simply a question of “personal responsibility” by people making decisions “of their own free will.”
Don’t “vilify” them? What, Dan, in your value system qualifies for vilification? They sell an addictive drug that hooks their fellow man for enormous profits, a drug that leads to mortal health problems and an ugly death. What if instead of tobacco it was an addictive form of cyanide? –pretty much the same thing.
It is what it is. Their entire industry is predicated on e-v-i-l and they should be made to pay every dime of the damage they cause. The only reason we even allow such an evil product to be sold is because it became widespread and a significant industry long before the dangers were known. And, even after the dangers were learned, the tobacco industry has successfully lobbied (bought off) legislators for the last forty years to prevent its elimination.
No, I am happy every time the tobacco industry is successfully sued, smoking is prohibited or they are made to pay the medical costs such as tests or anti-addiction programs. They should be relentlessly vilified and sued into oblivion.
I agree with a lot of what you said… if you choose to smoke you know that your putting yourself at risk. On the other hand, there are smokers that quit 4o years ago and are now needing these chest exams. There are plenty of people that cannot afford to pay for them and smoked long before the labels on the cigarette boxes gave you warnings. 40% of people diagnosed with lung cancer are non-smokers ( have smoked before and quit) and 20% are never smokers (never smoked 1). The second hand smoke is terrible, if you choose to go to a bar or club and surround yourself with it. But, what about the kids that have to sit in a house or car with their parents that smoke and breathe that in. Most states are still banning or haven’t banned smoking in public restaurants/places… It could actually be giving Phillip Morris the upper hand. They pay for a $3,000 exam… after the person has to go through how much paper work???… and they make how many billions a year. That isn’t even making a dent in their wallet. And if they have theses free exams, I doubt anyone could ever sue them again over a death. They could simply say… we give free exams… this could have been prevented…
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