Ten years ago, I was one of a group of activists fighting the world’s largest hazardous waste incinerator. We were in the middle of an eye-gouging street brawl with the new Clinton administration, which had broken its promise to shut the burn box down. The incinerator was in a poor neighborhood, next to a school, the emissions from it were potently toxic and with an irony that was lost on no one, many of the activists fighting it were chain-smoking night and day.
We were under a huge burden of stress and – let’s be honest – nicotine is a wonderful drug. Cigarettes, paper tubes filled with tobacco and set afire, are the perfect nicotine-delivery system. Shake a cigarette from its pack, put one end in your mouth, light the other end and inhale. The motions can be executed faster than you can read the words to describe them and just that fast the nicotine is in your bloodstream.
The effect is subtle, yet profound. Nicotine picks you up and lets you down real easy. It’s an all-purpose drug, equally appropriate for relaxing after a big meal or working frantically on a deadline. Nicotine is an American drug. Tobacco – Nicotiana tabacum – was unknown to Europeans before explorers arrived in the New World. Tobacco is a nightshade and while its cousins – potatoes and tomatoes – quickly became associated with Ireland and Italy, tobacco never lost its American identity. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were tobacco farmers and tobacco profits financed much of the American Revolution. American GIs, smoking Luckies and Camels, made the world safe for democracy in two world wars and people across the globe learned to speak English and light cigarettes by watching American movies.
I heard from one of those chain-smoking activists not too long ago – we’ve both long since quit – she wrote to say her father is dying of lung cancer. My friend grew up in a far-off land; her family became hooked on American democracy and cigarettes. She said she remembered long evenings of her childhood, her house crowded with activists trying to bring democracy to their country, the air full of political philosophy and blue cigarette smoke. She remembered how proud she felt as a little girl to be trusted with money to run down to the store to buy American cigarettes for her father.
My friend’s father lost his battle for democracy, their home country remains under autocratic rule. The family found sanctuary in American and now her father will end his days in exile, losing the other battle, the one with cancer.
Cigarettes kill over 400,000 Americans every year. Eighty to 90 percent of all lung cancers in this country are caused by cigarettes. On the other hand, only 12 percent of Americans still smoke. We’re starting to get the message, even if the tobacco companies spend $26 million on ads every day. We’re starting to get the message, even if the tobacco industry gives $5 million to politicians every election cycle.
As the American tobacco companies get shut out at home, they’re pushing harder to increase their sales around the world. The World Health Organization estimates that five million people will die from tobacco-related illnesses this year and that number is expected to double in the next 20 years, thanks to tobacco advertising.
A draft treaty, one that would put limits on global marketing of tobacco products, will go before the World Health Association in May. The treaty would allow countries to ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship for sport and cultural events. The treaty would require warning labels on tobacco products.
Opposition to the treaty is led by – the United States, with the strong support of the tobacco lobby. The Bush administration’s record on international treaties and conventions is dismal, our position on the tobacco treaty will not win us any glory.
Our nation, so long a beacon to the rest of the world, now only seems to offer war and disease and death.
American Made
Ten years ago, I was one of a group of activists fighting the world’s largest hazardous waste incinerator. We were in the middle of an eye-gouging street brawl with the new Clinton administration, which had broken its promise to shut the burn box down. The incinerator was in a poor neighborhood, next to a school, the emissions from it were potently toxic and with an irony that was lost on no one, many of the activists fighting it were chain-smoking night and day.
We were under a huge burden of stress and – let’s be honest – nicotine is a wonderful drug. Cigarettes, paper tubes filled with tobacco and set afire, are the perfect nicotine-delivery system. Shake a cigarette from its pack, put one end in your mouth, light the other end and inhale. The motions can be executed faster than you can read the words to describe them and just that fast the nicotine is in your bloodstream.
The effect is subtle, yet profound. Nicotine picks you up and lets you down real easy. It’s an all-purpose drug, equally appropriate for relaxing after a big meal or working frantically on a deadline. Nicotine is an American drug. Tobacco – Nicotiana tabacum – was unknown to Europeans before explorers arrived in the New World. Tobacco is a nightshade and while its cousins – potatoes and tomatoes – quickly became associated with Ireland and Italy, tobacco never lost its American identity. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were tobacco farmers and tobacco profits financed much of the American Revolution. American GIs, smoking Luckies and Camels, made the world safe for democracy in two world wars and people across the globe learned to speak English and light cigarettes by watching American movies.
I heard from one of those chain-smoking activists not too long ago – we’ve both long since quit – she wrote to say her father is dying of lung cancer. My friend grew up in a far-off land; her family became hooked on American democracy and cigarettes. She said she remembered long evenings of her childhood, her house crowded with activists trying to bring democracy to their country, the air full of political philosophy and blue cigarette smoke. She remembered how proud she felt as a little girl to be trusted with money to run down to the store to buy American cigarettes for her father.
My friend’s father lost his battle for democracy, their home country remains under autocratic rule. The family found sanctuary in American and now her father will end his days in exile, losing the other battle, the one with cancer.
Cigarettes kill over 400,000 Americans every year. Eighty to 90 percent of all lung cancers in this country are caused by cigarettes. On the other hand, only 12 percent of Americans still smoke. We’re starting to get the message, even if the tobacco companies spend $26 million on ads every day. We’re starting to get the message, even if the tobacco industry gives $5 million to politicians every election cycle.
As the American tobacco companies get shut out at home, they’re pushing harder to increase their sales around the world. The World Health Organization estimates that five million people will die from tobacco-related illnesses this year and that number is expected to double in the next 20 years, thanks to tobacco advertising.
A draft treaty, one that would put limits on global marketing of tobacco products, will go before the World Health Association in May. The treaty would allow countries to ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship for sport and cultural events. The treaty would require warning labels on tobacco products.
Opposition to the treaty is led by – the United States, with the strong support of the tobacco lobby. The Bush administration’s record on international treaties and conventions is dismal, our position on the tobacco treaty will not win us any glory.
Our nation, so long a beacon to the rest of the world, now only seems to offer war and disease and death.