Exposing tobacco industry marketing
It is increasingly difficult to bring great attention to tobacco as an existential concern because every concern (air pollution, global disasters, climate change) is viewed as an existential concern. And making excuses for every concern, there is often some corporate entity countering with talking points which give the public a means to rationalize disregard for even the most serious consequences. While individuals know of the concerns of ill health due to a variety of diseases, they often don’t link them to products. Perhaps the use of a nicotine device, the e-cigarette, has now succeeded in alarming people about tobacco products through thousands of cases of lung illness and nearly fifty deaths in the US alone.
Unfortunately, instead of health officials using this ‘epidemic’ to reassert the catastrophic nature of tobacco use and nicotine addiction, many wish to minimize any concern about e-cigarettes since they feel it can be useful in some way someday. Alternative tobacco products supported by the tobacco industry should be recognized for what they are, a means for Big Tobacco to continue their exploitation of smokers, new and continuing. I believe this fact should be made clear to the general public at the same time that the tobacco industry is now being compelled by a legal verdict to publicly admit their lies and exploitative motives when they marketed their products in the past.
by Dr.Stephen Hamann
