Cigarette Smoking has fallen to the level of the 1890s thanks to New Zealand’s rigourous anti-smoking policies.
Listener 28 March, 1998.
The greatest epidemic the world faces is not HIV-Aids, but diseases from tobacco smoking, which kill more than Aids, maternal and childhood conditions, and tuberculosis combined. A peculiarity of the smoking epidemic is it is driven by the commercial imperatives of tobacco growers, manufacturers, and distributors. Most diseases are not profit driven, but it is becoming increasingly clear from records released during American litigation that the tobacco companies knew tobacco consumption was addictive, and were aware that smoking caused early death, and poorer quality of life. Yet they encouraged the addiction and promoted tobacco sales.
