Tobacco Documents Online

A. r STAx Indianapolis, Indiana March 8', 1967 36 How To Get Dead ~ LOCAL NEWS West Chester, Pa. h:ar'ch 20, 1967 _Before You Drink That Second Cup Did you quit amnking because of all that was said about cigarettes and lung cancee. If you did, it's just pos- sibre"lhgt-you may -Jecide to quit co€- fee, too. That is if you take to heart what one medical authority says. According to this medic, a car- diologist of wide repute, there is a sharp rise in free fatty acids in the blpod within two or three hours after drinking coffee. If they should settle in the arteries, trouble could ensue. Caf- feine-free coffee cuts down consider- ably the release of such fatty acids. Medical science is making great advances today, but it is also causing a man to wonder if he should light a cigarette or, now, to drink that 15-cent cup of coffee. He's already been told that some air isn't fit to breathe and, of course, a lot of water isn't fit to swim in, let alone drink. Medical, science must be credited with prolonging life, but even this creates problems of some magnitude. If we're going to take all the joy out of living inelvding that cup of java in the morning, why put off the inevit'ability of dying? 166 Cigarettes may well be harmful to the health, al- though many non-smokers die of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases blamed on "coffin nails." Yet' it is not too difficult to sympathize with the tobacco in- dustry's angry gripe against a government threat to force it' to advertise the danger of cigarettes. For one thing, the industry over the years has-had a habit of being rapturous about its product. Its adver- tising geniuses coined slogans that became better known to several generations. of Americans that any ode of Byron, Shelley or Keats. "Be nonchalant: light a Murad. . . . Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet. . . . Not a cough in a car- load. . . . With men who know tobacco best. . . . I'd walk a mile for a Camel. .. . If you want a treat in- stead of a treatment.... Rather fight' than switch. ... Best t'obacco makes the best smoke. ... Filters the smoke on the way to your throat.... Tastes good like a cigarette should" . . . etc. ad infinitum. So it would be hard to sell the tobacco pitchmen on telling the public, via ad and commercial: "Smoke Koffola. Its finer blend of superior tobaccos may send you to an early grave." Why single out the tobacco industry? Should a shoe maker be forced to advertise: "Wear Walk-wells, but beware, for you could walk in front of a bus and get run over." Should an auto maker say: "Drive a Superbomb, but keep it in mind that you may wind up plastered on the front of a Mack truck." Should a soft drink bottler exclaim: "Drink Burpola, but' remember, you could drown in it." Or a baseball bat manufacturer warn: "Play ball with a Gnawbone Slugger, but make sure your worst enemy, or your wife, or the equivalent thereof, doesn't crack your skull with it " Or a candy maker declare: "Eat Honeysweet Chocolate Drops, but never forget they may make all your teeth fall out some day." How about it? You can get killed falling down stairs. Should car- penters print a warning on each step? You can plunge to your death from a building. Should contractors put a sign above pach entrance: "Warning. This building could prove fatal." You can drown in a river, lake or pond-even a bathtub. Should all of them be festooned with "beware of the water" signs? How about sticks and stones? They can break your bones. Even words can hurt you, psychologists say today, in spite of the old saying, "Words can never hurt me." You can break your arm on a sidewalk or curbing. You can break your neck or your back falling out of a tree. You can be smothered by a pillow. Your furnace can set your house on fire. But this is a good place to stop. We don't want to give the government any ideas. That could be dangerous. It could be injurious to your health - or who knows? - even fatal. * .a .. ..~r .t ..... . . r.. . :.M'