Page Two

To smoke or not to smoke, that is the question. It is usually faced when you are a teenager. There is no obligation involved. It is a freewill decision. But according to medical authorities, it is a decision that could have serious repercussions in your life. It could even determine when and how you die.

Therefore, important questions are raised: Is it ethical to advertise tobacco products? Is it morally justifiable for so-called Christian nations to export their tobacco products, unloading them on other nations? Are cigarette salesmen selling disease and death? And since people choose to smoke, does it really matter?

Tobacco and Your Health​—Is There Really a Link?

“Thank You for Not Smoking”​—A sign of the times.

“Thank You for Smoking”​—A counterattack in a tobacco company’s magazine.

BATTLE lines are drawn, propaganda pens and computers are put into action. Advertising agencies send out their opposing messages. This war is being fought in the world market. It is the tobacco war, and the stakes are high. Billions of dollars yearly. Whether you smoke or not, you are affected.

It is a war fought on two main levels​—economics and health. For those against smoking, health is priority number one. For the tobacco barons and those tied to the industry, economics, profits, and jobs are at stake. Emotions and reactions tend to run high. At an airport a smoker asked a bystander for a light. “Sorry, I don’t smoke,” was the innocent reply. “I didn’t ask you if you smoked!” snarled the smoker.

But what is at the core of this controversy? Is smoking really so bad for you? Should you give it up?

Government Health Warnings

The issue of tobacco and cancer has been debated for decades in the United States. The tobacco industry donated millions of dollars to research back in the 1960’s allegedly to help pin down the relationship between cancer and tobacco and thus find some way of producing cigarettes without the cancer-causing agents. One result has probably been more than the tobacco manufacturers bargained for.

In 1964 the U.S. surgeon general issued his first report warning against the dangers of smoking. Ever since 1965, U.S. cigarette manufacturers have been bound by law to print warnings on their packages. At first the message was low-key: “Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health.” Then in 1985 the tobacco companies were required to rotate four messages in their advertisements and on their products. Each starts with the words: “SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING.” Then the different messages are: “Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy.” (See box on page 4.) “Smoking by Pregnant Women May Result in Fetal Injury, Premature Birth, And Low Birth Weight.” “Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health.” “Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide.”a

Some other countries, apart from the United States, also issue warnings about cigarettes. India Today magazine carries ads that include the words: “STATUTORY WARNING: CIGARETTE SMOKING IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH.” In Canada they used to state in small print: “Warning: Health and Welfare Canada advises that danger to health increases with amount smoked​—avoid inhaling.” Since May 31, 1988, tobacco advertising has been banned in Canada. In Britain cigarette ads include the words: “MIDDLE TAR [or LOW TAR] As defined by H.M.Government DANGER: Government Health WARNING: CIGARETTES CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH.” Tobacco advertising has been banned in Italy ever since 1962. (Yet Italians have doubled their cigarette smoking over the last 20 years!) With so many warnings based on overwhelming scientific evidence, more than 50,000 studies over the years, the conclusion is inescapable​—smoking is dangerous to your health!

Although smoking is a worldwide phenomenon, not all countries demand that warnings be printed on the product. And when markets shrink in one area, the tobacco giants, with their high-pressure advertising, break open markets in other countries. Is your country affected by powerful tobacco advertising? Are foreign cigarettes made to look more attractive? What is the real story behind the “big sell”?

[Footnotes]

[Box/​Picture on page 4, 5]

SMOKING and Pregnant Women

The Soviet magazine Nauka I Zhizn (Science and Life) recently published an article by Dr. Victor Kazmin in which he detailed the dangers to mother and child if the mother smokes during pregnancy. He stated: “Smoking does colossal harm to the woman’s organism, whose biological distinctions make it fairly sensitive to poisonings. After all, tobacco smoke contains components that pose a grave threat to health.”

He states that smoking mothers can actually poison their offspring. “Laboratory analyses have shown the presence in the amniotic fluid of such women patients of poisons​—nicotine and its metabolite, cotinine. But what is most dreadful, as has been detected by electron microscopy, is that with smoking women during pregnancy even the structure of the umbilical cord changes; and it is along this cord that the foetus receives all it needs for life from the mother. . . .

“If the mother smokes during the first two or three weeks after conception, as a rule, worst affected is the embryo’s central nervous system . . . During the fourth or fifth week of pregnancy the cardiovascular system develops. Then it becomes poisoned first.”

The conclusion reached by Dr. Kazmin? “Tobacco smoke is much more dangerous to the foetus than to the mother herself.” Is it worth it? Remember the U.S. surgeon general’s warning: “Smoking . . . May Complicate Pregnancy.” And that is putting it mildly.

[Credit Line]

WHO/​American Cancer Society

[Box on page 5]

SMOKING and Emphysema

Emphysema is a disease that leads to progressive inelasticity of the lungs, which eventually makes it impossible to exhale stale air sufficiently. The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Complete Home Medical Guide explains: “The people in [the United States] who have emphysema follow a pattern: They are primarily men, between 50 and 70, who have been heavy smokers for years. In the past, women did not develop emphysema as often as men, but this pattern is changing as women continue to become heavy smokers.”

The same work adds: “Emphysema may masquerade for years as something else. A person with emphysema has probably had several very bad colds each winter for a few years, each accompanied by a heavy cough, and perhaps by chronic bronchitis. The cough often persists and becomes chronic.” What are some other symptoms of emphysema?

“Emphysema develops slowly. Slight morning and evening difficulty in breathing may be followed sometime later with the beginnings of interference in activities. A short walk may be enough to bring on breathlessness; walking up stairs is difficult. Eventually, as the lungs become less and less able to carry out inhaling, exhaling, and gas exchange, there may come a point when every breath requires a major effort and the patient is disabled and unable to carry out normal activities.”

The same medical guide adds that emphysema can lead to serious cardiovascular problems. Is it really worth it? Why abort your precious gift of life in exchange for the ephemeral kick of nicotine?

Salesmen of Death​—Are You a Customer?

“The guy that smokes has been told all the warnings on earth that it is going to kill you, and I think the same thing. I think it is going to kill you. I think any fool that takes smoke down in his belly is going to suffer. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. I have made a fortune on it. . . . The only way that we built this country is by selling the rest of the fools in the world tobacco.”​—James Sharp, longtime tobacco grower in Kentucky, in Merchants of Death—​The American Tobacco Industry, by Larry C. White.

THAT candid remark speaks volumes but leaves several questions unanswered. Why do more than a billion people around the world smoke? What induces them to continue with a habit that is known to be death-dealing? After all, the tobacco story is basically the same as the drug story​—supply and demand. If there is no profitable market, then the supply dries up. So why do people smoke?

Addiction is the key word. Once nicotine establishes a foothold in the body, there is a daily need for regular fixes of nicotine. Combined with the addiction is habit. Certain situations, established by habit, trigger the desire for a cigarette. It might be as soon as a person gets up or with the first cup of morning coffee, the after-lunch drink, the pressure and social interchange at work, or in recreation. Dozens of apparently insignificant habits can be the “on” switch for a smoke.

Why Did They Smoke?

Awake! interviewed several ex-smokers to try to understand the motivation behind smoking. For example, there is Ray, in his 50’s, a former quartermaster in the U.S. Navy. He explained: “I was about 9 years old when I first started smoking, but I got serious about it when I was 12. I recall that I was kicked out of the Boy Scouts for smoking.”

Awake!: “What got you interested in smoking?”

Ray: “It was the macho thing to do. You know, it was manly to smoke. I remember that the ads in those days showed firemen and policemen smoking. Then later in the Navy, I had a high-pressure job in navigation, and I felt that smoking helped me ride through the stress.

“I used to smoke about a pack and a half a day [30 cigarettes] and would not start a day without my cigarette. Of course, I inhaled. There’s no point in smoking if you don’t inhale.”

Bill, a professional artist from New York, also in his 50’s, tells a similar story:

“I started as a kid of 13. I wanted to be like the grown-ups. Once I was in its grip, I couldn’t stop. Having a cigarette was like having a friend. In fact, if I was going to bed and realized I had no cigarettes in the house, I would get dressed again and, regardless of the weather, go out and buy a pack for the next day. I was smoking from one to two packs a day. I admit that I was addicted. And I was a heavy drinker at the same time. The two just seemed to go together, especially in the bars where I spent a lot of my time.”

Amy, young and outgoing, started to smoke when she was 12 years old. “It was peer pressure at first. Then, my dad died when I was 15, and the stress of that pushed me further. But as I got older, the ads influenced me, especially that one, ‘You’ve come a long way, baby.’ I was a career girl, studying to be a surgical nurse. I was soon smoking three packs a day. My favorite time to smoke was after dinner and whenever I was on the phone, which was often.” Did she notice any ill effects? “I had morning cough and headaches, and I was no longer physically fit. Just climbing the stairs to my apartment left me breathless. And I was only 19!”

Harley, a former Navy flyer, now in his 60’s, started smoking during the Depression at the age of 5! Why did he do it? “All the kids smoked in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where I came from. If you smoked, you were tough.”

Harley minces no words about why he smoked. “It was pure pleasure for me. I would inhale the smoke deep down into my lungs and hold it there. Then I used to love to puff out smoke rings. I got where I could not live without my cigarette. I started and ended the day with a cigarette. In the Navy, I was smoking two to three packs a day and a box of cigars each month.”

Bill, Ray, Amy, and Harley gave up smoking. So have millions of others​—over 43 million in the United States alone. But the tobacco salesmen have not given up. They are targeting new markets all the time.

Are YOU a Target?

With many male smokers giving up smoking in the industrialized nations, plus the loss of customers through natural and smoking-induced death, the tobacco companies have had to look for new markets. In some cases they have changed their advertising strategies in an effort to bolster their sales. Sponsorship of sports events, such as tennis and golf tournaments, is an effective way of giving a supposedly clean image to smoking. Another strategy adjustment is the markets to be targeted. Are you one of their potential customers?

Target number one: Women. A minority of women have smoked for decades, aided and abetted by the example of film actresses such as Gloria Swanson, who back in 1917 was smoking as an 18-year-old. In fact, she got one of her first film roles because, as the director explained: “Your hair, your face, the way you sit, the way you smoke a cigarette . . . You’re exactly what I want.”

In the 1940’s Lauren Bacall, who featured in films with her husband, heavy smoker Humphrey Bogart, also set a glamorous lead in smoking. But the female side of the cigarette market was always lagging way behind the male market. And so were the cancer statistics for women. Now they are catching up fast​—in smoking and in lung cancer.

In recent years a new trend in advertising has developed, in part due to the more competitive role of women in society together with the subtle influence of tobacco advertising. What is the message being sent to women? The Philip Morris company, which manufactures a variety of cigarette brands, produces “Virginia Slims,” aimed at the modern woman. Their slogan is the one that attracted Amy: “You’ve come a long way, baby.” The ad portrays a sophisticated, modern woman with a cigarette between her fingers. But some women must be asking themselves now how far they have come. Over the last two years, lung cancer has exceeded breast cancer in the mortality rate for women.

Another cigarette brand offers women a bargain: “5 free per pack!” “50 free per carton!” Some women’s magazines even include coupons for free packs!

Sex is another easy way to make cigarettes seem attractive. One brand invites: “Find More Pleasure.” The message includes a want ad, stating: “WANTED​—Tall, dark stranger for long lasting relationship. Good looks, great taste a must. Signed, Eagerly Seeking Smoking Satisfaction.” The cigarette being presented comes “tall” and in dark paper. A subtle connection?

Links with fashion are another hook used for women. One brand is hailed as “A celebration of style and taste by YVES SAINT LAURENT.” Another bait is used for weight-conscious women. The advertisement features a photo of a slim model, and the cigarettes are defined as “Ultra Lights​—The lightest style.”

Why are the cigarette manufacturers targeting the women of the world? The World Health Organization gives an obvious clue with its estimate that “more than 50 per cent of men but only five per cent of women smoke in developing countries compared to about 30 per cent of both sexes in the industrialised world.” There is a huge untapped market out there for tobacco profits, regardless of the ultimate price in health that may have to be paid. And the tobacco salesmen are having success. According to The New York Times, the U.S. surgeon general’s report, released in January 1989, stated that ‘children, especially girls, are smoking at younger ages’ and that includes elementary-school children. Another source says that in recent years the number of female teenage smokers in the United States has increased by 40 percent. But women are not the only target for the salesmen of death and disease.

The Racial Target

In his book Merchants of Death​—The American Tobacco Industry, Larry C. White states: “Blacks are a good market for the cigarette makers. The National Center for Health Statistics showed that as of 1986, a higher percentage of blacks smoked than whites [in the United States] . . . It’s not surprising that blacks smoke in higher proportions than whites, because they are special targets of cigarette promotion.” Why are they special targets? According to The Wall Street Journal, they are “a group that lags behind the general population in kicking the habit.” Therefore, a black client is often a “loyal” client, ‘until death do us part.’

How do the tobacco companies concentrate on the black population? Author White states: “Cigarettes are heavily advertised in black-oriented magazines such as Ebony, Jet, and Essence. In 1985 cigarette companies spent $3.3 million on advertisements in Ebony alone.” One tobacco company also promotes a yearly fashion show directed to the black women’s market. Free cigarettes are handed out. Another company at one time regularly sponsored a jazz festival and continues to support music festivals popular with blacks. How special a target is the black population? A spokesman for Philip Morris stated: “The black market is very important. It’s a very powerful one.”

But there is an even more important market for the tobacco giants​—not just races or groups but whole nations!

[Blurb on page 7]

“Having a cigarette was like having a friend”

[Box on page 9]

SMOKING and Buerger’s Disease

A recent case in Canada, reported by Maclean’s, highlights yet another disease attributed to smoking. Roger Perron started smoking at the age of 13. By the age of 27, he was suffering from Buerger’s disease and had to have one leg amputated below the knee. He was warned that if he continued smoking, the disease could attack again. Maclean’s reports: “But Perron ignored the warning, and in 1983 doctors had to amputate his other leg. After that, Perron . . . finally quit smoking.” Now he is suing a tobacco company for damages.

What is Buerger’s disease? It “occurs most often in men who smoke. The disease is characterized by an inflammatory response in the arteries, veins, and nerves, which leads to a thickening of the blood vessel walls caused by infiltration of white cells. The first symptoms are usually a bluish cast to a toe or finger and a feeling of coldness in the affected limb. Since the nerves are also inflamed, there may be severe pain and constriction of the small blood vessels controlled by them. Overactive sympathetic nerves also may cause the feet to sweat excessively, even though they feel cold. . . . Ischemic ulcers and gangrene are common complications of progressive Buerger’s disease.

“The cause of Buerger’s disease is unknown, but since it occurs mostly in young men who smoke, it is thought to be a reaction to something in cigarettes. The most important treatment is to stop smoking.” (Italics ours.)​—The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Complete Home Medical Guide.

[Box on page 9]

SMOKING and Heart Attacks

“Although most people are well aware of the association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer and other pulmonary diseases, many still do not realize that smoking is also a major risk factor in heart attacks. In fact, the . . . Surgeon General’s report on Smoking and Health estimates that 225,000 of the American [U.S.] deaths from cardiovascular disease each year are directly related to smoking​—many more than the total number of cancer and pulmonary disease deaths attributed to smoking.

“Smokers often ask whether low-tar, low nicotine cigarettes reduce the cardiovascular risk. The answer appears to be ‘no.’ In fact, some of the filter cigarettes increase the amount of carbon monoxide that is inhaled, making them even worse for the heart than unfiltered brands.” (Italics ours.)​—The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Complete Home Medical Guide.

[Picture on page 8]

Tobacco advertisements are aiming at women and are winning

Is Your Country a Prime Target?

BECAUSE it buys cheaper tobacco in Brazil and Zimbabwe, the United States has a tobacco surplus. So where could the tobacco barons sell it? To countries in Africa and Asia. Thus, the magazine Asiaweek reports: “Asian countries now consume about 50 percent of America’s overseas tobacco sales, replacing Britain and West Germany as leading markets.”

And what a rich prize dangles in front of the tobacco salesmen! A market with a potential population of nearly two billion people within the next 20 years. The present population of China and India alone is staggering​—a combined total of about 1.8 billion! And as World Health stated: “While tobacco markets are decreasing in the west at the rate of one per cent per annum, smoking is increasing in developing countries at an average of two per cent per annum.” And remember that the diminishing market has a much smaller population than the potential market that beckons in the East. The U.S. tobacco industry expects that sales in Asia will increase by 18 percent by the year 2000. But there is at least one barrier. Tariffs.

Double Standards in Spreading Disease and Death

How can the American tobacco companies get other countries to accept their surplus cigarettes? Paradoxically, they have an ally that, while warning its own public against the dangers of smoking, actively promotes the sale of deadly tobacco in other countries. Who is it? The U.S. government!

Asiaweek explains: “The tobacco-export juggernaut has moved with the weight of the U.S. government behind it. . . . The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative . . . has gone all out to batter down trade barriers and push for access to the Asian media for American companies​—even though cigarette ads have long been banned from the airwaves in the U.S.” World Health magazine reports: “The [U.S.] tobacco companies wield considerable political influence. Trade sanctions or the threat of such sanctions have been made against Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea unless they open their markets to the sale and advertising of American tobacco products.”

Even worse, the tobacco companies not only sell their products in Asia but also boost their sales with high-pressure advertising. Some countries, such as Taiwan and South Korea, under pressure, even dropped their ban on tobacco advertising! Now China is also high on the U.S. cigarette manufacturers’ hit list. Little wonder that one tobacco company executive is quoted as saying: “You know what we want? We want Asia.” But how do some view these American high-pressure tactics?

According to a New York Times correspondent, one Korean businessman railed “against American immorality for pushing American cigarettes on the Korean people.” And he has a valid point. While America wages a war against imports of cocaine and heroin that are basic to some other economies, it wants to off-load its own poisonous plant on other nations. Since America claims to have high ethical standards, is it consistent for it to foist on other nations, many in dire economic straits, its surplus of hazardous tobacco products?

Some Fight Back

Some African nations, such as Gambia, Mozambique, and Senegal, have banned cigarette advertising. Nigeria’s health minister stated last year that the Nigerian government was “going to ban all newspaper, radio, television and billboard advertising. We are going to ban smoking in all public places and transport.” Awake! was informed (January 1989) by a Nigerian information officer that this issue is still under debate.

China is a nation with 240 million smokers. By the year 2025, medical authorities expect to lose two million people each year as a result of smoking-related diseases. China has an enormous problem, as the magazine China Reconstructs admits: “Despite the Chinese government’s ban on cigarette advertising, frequent newspaper and magazine reports warning of the harmful effects of smoking, and the ever-increasing price of cigarettes, the number of smokers in China continues to rise.” And what is one of the results? “Cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases are now the chief killers in China.”

In some parts of China, it is considered a sign of hospitality to offer cigarettes when welcoming guests. But what a price the Chinese are paying! China Reconstructs reports: “Medical experts have warned that the incidence of lung cancer is increasing on a massive scale.” As one Chinese expert stated: “We are already paying too high a price.”

There is, however, another danger in the power of tobacco advertisers​—their subtle influence over the media.

[Picture on page 10]

Antismoking ad in Hong Kong

Tobacco and Censorship

“Enough Censorship! Freedom of speech​—including the freedom to advertise—​is a right we must preserve. A ban on cigarette advertising is not supported by the majority of Americans.”​—Newspaper ad, January 1989, based on “a nationwide telephone poll of 1500 adults.” But do 1,500 represent “the majority of Americans”?

TOBACCO advertisers argue that their ads do not initiate people into smoking. They just determine the distribution of the business among the different brands. However, the present increase among women smokers makes that claim disputable. But there is another pernicious influence that springs from the power wielded by the tobacco advertisers.

In recent years U.S. tobacco companies have bought themselves a certain respectability by buying up food companies and dropping the word tobacco from their corporate names. Thus, the American Tobacco Company became American Brands; R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company recently became RJR/​Nabisco; Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation became Brown and Williamson Industries. But what is one of the results of these changes? More advertising pressure. How so?

Even magazines that never feature tobacco ads have to think twice about publishing articles critical of smoking and tobacco products. True, tobacco advertising revenue may not be lost. But what about the other companies that now belong to the tobacco barons and advertise food or other products? And what about articles or statements that may cast smoking in a bad light? Here is the basis for a subtle, almost subliminal self-censorship.

An interesting case in point is the June 6, 1983, issue of Newsweek. Issues prior to and following that of June 6 carried from seven to ten pages of cigarette ads. But the June 6 Newsweek carried 4.3 pages on a controversial series entitled “Showdown on Smoking.” How many pages of cigarette ads did it carry in that issue? None. Author White states: “When the cigarette companies learned of plans for the story, they asked that their ads be removed. The magazine may have lost as much as $1 million in advertising for publishing that story.”

Advertising revenue is the lifeblood of magazines and newspapers. Evidence indicates that editors think very carefully about what material they will publish in criticism of the tobacco industry, if any. One health writer stated: “If I put smoking on a list of factors that cause heart disease, for example, my editor will either put it at the end of the list or drop it altogether.” As the saying goes, “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” Self-censorship has become the order of the day.

Interestingly, The Wall Street Journal reported that over a period of six years during which two black-oriented magazines were featuring tobacco ads, neither of them published any article dealing directly with smoking and health. Just a coincidence? Evidently, magazines that advertise tobacco products can hardly bite the hand that feeds them. So they refrain from exposing the dangers of smoking.

This review of the subject of tobacco, smoking, and advertising helps us to see that a lot is at stake. For the tobacco growers, their living is at stake. For the tobacco barons, the salesmen, their fat profits are at stake. For governments, their taxation revenue is at stake. And for the millions of smokers, their health and their lives are at stake.

If you are a smoker or you are contemplating starting smoking, the choice is yours. As the U.S. tobacco magnates like to remind you, it is your constitutional right to smoke. But remember, that means it is also your constitutional right to risk dying of lung or throat cancer, cardiovascular diseases, emphysema, Buerger’s disease (see box page 9), and a host of other deadly ailments. On the other hand, if you want to give up smoking, how can you do it? What is needed? Motivation!

[Picture on page 12]

U.S. surgeon general Koop has consistently warned against the dangers of tobacco use

[Credit Line]

Public Health Service photo

Smoking​—The Christian View

OBVIOUSLY, the Bible does not mention either tobacco or smoking, since they were unknown in the ancient Middle East. The simple reason is that the tobacco plant is native to South America, Mexico, and the West Indies and was not introduced to the rest of the world until the mid-16th century.

Does that mean that the Bible says nothing relevant to smoking? Not at all. It clearly states principles that have universal application and are guidelines for our conduct. What are some of these basic principles?

Love of God and Neighbor

The fundamental motivating force for a Christian has to be that which Jesus expressed: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength and with your whole mind,’ and, ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”​—Luke 10:27.

How can one render love to God with one’s whole heart, soul, mind, and strength if one is deliberately corroding one’s faculties by indulging in a habit, a vice, that leads to premature disease and death? How does one show appreciation for God’s gift of life when inhaling an addictive drug like nicotine? God gave “to all persons life and breath.” (Acts 17:24, 25) Should we pollute that God-given breath? From God’s viewpoint it truly is a vice, “an evil, degrading, or immoral practice or habit.”​—The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.

How does smoking show love for neighbor, when a smoker’s foul breath and smoke pollute clothing and the surrounding air? What about a smoker’s closest neighbors, his spouse and children? Is it love to pursue a course that might lead to an early, slow, and painful death that they must observe? Does it show Christian consideration for other people to oblige them to be passive smokers, inhaling a smoker’s poisonous exhalations? Little wonder that the botanical garden in Blanes, Spain, has the tobacco plant in its poisonous plants section!

What about love of self? It is legitimate to love oneself to the point of caring for one’s bodily, mental, and spiritual health. The apostle Paul stated that “no man ever hated his own flesh; but he feeds and cherishes it.” Does it show love of self to indulge in a habit that slowly subverts one’s health?​—Ephesians 5:28, 29.

Jehovah God has promised that there will be ‘new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness is to dwell.’ (2 Peter 3:13) That will be a clean new world, without pollution of any kind. Smoking will not be permitted or even desired then, so why smoke now? Logically, Paul’s counsel applies here: “Therefore, since we have these promises, beloved ones, let us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God’s fear.” (2 Corinthians 7:1) Nicotine defiles the flesh quite literally. Smoking makes it impossible for a Christian to present to God his body “a sacrifice living, holy, acceptable to God, a sacred service with [his] power of reason.” (Romans 12:1) The power of reason dictates that smoking is harmful and against Christian principles. There, then, is the primary motivation to quit smoking if one wants to please God.

Why Did They Quit?

Millions of people around the world have quit smoking. It can be done. But how? What is necessary? A powerful motivation. With many it is health, self-respect, and a love for the family. But others also have a religious motive​—a desire to please God.

So, what about Ray, Bill, Amy, and Harley, mentioned in our second article? Why did they quit smoking?

Bill, formerly a bearded, long-haired artist, studied the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. What next? “I decided I wanted to please God and serve him with a clean body and mind. I quit cold turkey. No gradual withdrawal. On January 1, 1975, I took my last drag on a cigarette and then threw away the cigarette pack. Since then my health has improved. I still have a touch of emphysema. But even my perception of color improved after I quit smoking.”

Amy, the surgical nurse, explains how she quit. “I assisted in open-heart surgery, and I have seen every kind of lung​—pink and healthy, dark and poisoned. Even though I saw those horribly sick lungs, looking as if they were impregnated with black peppers, I still did not give up smoking. I kidded myself, saying, ‘You’re still young. That won’t happen to you.’

“Then in 1982 I felt the need to straighten out my life, and I started to study the Bible with the Witnesses. Even though I stayed with a Witness in her home, I used to sneak out onto the roof to have a smoke! So I had to come to grips with myself. I prayed hard and long. But once I had made the decision, it was easy. The first two days were a test, but constant prayer was the key for me.”

Harley, the former Navy flyer, had a hard time breaking the nicotine habit. “I tried to taper off my smoking, but it didn’t work. Then when I decided I wanted to be baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I went cold turkey. I went through two or three days of agony. I was nervous, tense, and uptight. How I wanted a cigarette! Then a Witness helped me with some fine counsel. ‘When you want to reach for a cigarette, that is when you must pray to Jehovah for help.’ It worked for me. Another thought that impressed me was, ‘Could I imagine Jesus with a cigarette in his mouth?’ It was out of the question. But I realize that a smoker needs a powerful motivation to quit. I used to say to my mother, ‘I’m only hurting myself, Mom.’ In fact I was hurting her too, in more ways than one.”

Ray, the former Navy quartermaster, also did not find it easy to stop smoking. “I had tried a few times before I met Jehovah’s Witnesses, but it never worked. I was always mixing with smoking people, and it was hard to refuse the proffered cigarette. But when I got to know the truth from the Bible, I wanted to serve Jehovah, even as Christ had done. So I quit in one day. It was miserable for two weeks. My body was crying out for nicotine. But what a change it made! I suddenly had boundless energy again. I felt good about myself. I was in charge again.”

Is It Worth It?

Common sense indicates that any harmful practice should be dropped. But with smoking we are not talking about just harmful. It is deadly, death-dealing. It is poisonous. As Patrick Reynolds, the tobacco fortune heir, stated in his testimony to a U.S. Congress subcommittee: “I believe that cigarette advertising is promotion of a poisonous product and that it is moral, right and good to eliminate all advertising of cigarettes.”

For Christians wishing to please God, it is certainly moral, right, and good to eliminate, not just tobacco advertising, but all tobacco products from their lives. Cigarettes (“safe” and unsafe), cigars, pipe tobacco, and snuff​—they all come from the same poisonous, nicotine-producing tobacco plant. And you don’t need it to prove ‘you’ve come a long way, baby’ or to have enjoyment and fine taste in your life. Sophistication is not displayed by self-poisoning, regardless of what the salesmen of disease and death try to tell you!

[Box on page 15]

Defectors From the Smoking Trade

In 1875 R. J. Reynolds established a chewing-tobacco company in North Carolina. In 1913 they made their first cigarette​—the Camel brand. From there the business has prospered to become second only to Philip Morris in the cigarette sales and earnings league in the United States. The great-grandson of the founder is Patrick Reynolds, now in his early 40’s. Formerly a smoker for 15 years, he dropped a bombshell on the tobacco world.

In 1986 he appeared before a congressional subcommittee to testify against smoking! Since then he has become a regular campaigner against tobacco usage. What triggered his antipathy to the product that made his family’s fortune? Remembering watching as a boy as his father, a heavy smoker, slowly died of emphysema. Patrick stated: “My memories of my father are all of a man always short of breath, and counting the time he had left to live.”

Patrick decided to do something positive with his life. “I saw I could make a difference and do something with my life.” He said that to continue to promote “proven killers” would be “plainly immoral.”

“If the hand that once fed me is the tobacco industry, then that same hand has killed millions of people and will continue to kill millions more unless people wake up to the hazards of cigarettes.”​—The New York Times, October 25, 1986.

David Goerlitz is the model who was famous for being the Winston man on Winston cigarette ads. He has given up his cigarette advertising and has now become a spokesman for the American Cancer Society. What made him change? In an interview on TV, December 29, 1988, he said: ‘I visited my brother in a cancer ward at a hospital in Boston. It brought me face-to-face with the effects of my work​—cancer patients who were suffering because of smoking. I saw the devastating effects to the victims of smoking and the victims of the victims, their families. I saw men in their 40’s with no hair, tubes in their throats and stomachs. I felt guilty and decided to quit advertising tobacco.’

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“I assisted in open-heart surgery, and I have seen every kind of lung”

1. Be truly motivated. Have good solid reasons for wanting to quit​—self-esteem; concern for your health, present and future; concern for loved ones affected by your dangerous habit; desire to be clean, physically and morally, before self and God.

2. Set a date to quit, and follow it. Go cold turkey; it hurts fast, but it heals fast.

3. Take positive action to break the habit. Break up any cigarettes in the house, and pour water over them. Get all your tobacco-smelling clothing cleaned. Start afresh, feel fresh!

4. Avoid tobacco-laden atmosphere and smoking friends while completing total withdrawal from nicotine. Visit places where smoking is forbidden, such as museums and libraries.

5. Save the money you would have spent on tobacco and count it after a month! Buy something you really need. Or buy a gift for a loved one who can also rejoice in your victory.

6. Keep yourself and your hands busy in those moments when you would normally reach for a cigarette. Chew gum (not nicotine gum) or suck mints when the desire to smoke gnaws at you. Instead of smoking, clean teeth after meals. Take a walk, write letters, sew, garden, repair things, clean the car, and so on.

7. When feeling nervous or under stress, breathe deeply and slowly. Rather than reach for a cigarette, drink plenty of water and fruit juices. Liquids cleanse.

8. Exercise within your physical limits. Check with your doctor first as to what is reasonable. Your improving physical condition will encourage you.

9. Cut down on alcohol intake. Alcohol and cigarettes often “go together,” since alcohol can trigger the desire to smoke. Cut the social occasions when this might happen. View tobacco ads critically​—analyze their superficiality and duplicity. Don’t be taken in again.

10. If you are contemplating becoming one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, pray earnestly to God for help and then act in accordance with your prayers. Don’t expect a miracle; just make it happen.