Tobacco Documents Online

Update, WRC-TV and lYBC-TP in Washington, D.C., on May 13, 1962 at 5:30 p.m. Teen-agers About Smoking Abernathy: "Now our'interviiew section. This week an interview of teen-agers by a teen-ager about smoking. "The English essayist, Charles Lamb, once wrote 'For thy sake, tobacco, I would do anything but die'. Unfortunately, the overwhelming evidence of the last few years indicates that death and cigarette smoking may be linked. The tobacco industry says the evidence is by no means conclusive but more and more scientists have become convinced that cigarette smoking is the cause of lung cancer and heart disease and they say the more you smoke the greater the risk. - "In spite of this, we Americans seem to be smoking more these days and enjoying it just as much. About one out of every three Americans smokes cigarettes on which we spend'over $6.5 billion a year, and about one out of every three smokers is in his teens. We thought you might be interested in some teen-age opinions on smoking so we asked Carol Currier of Wauwatosa High School in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, to talk about this with her friends." ~ Girl: "Do you believe smoking is injurious to the health, Hal?" C L Boy: "Well, certainly I do, I mean -- of course with all our information, where you read all the time about cancer surveys and stuff... but I don't really think of it in terms of all these things -- I think about it just in terms of track and sports, and I think if God gives you a good body, a good strong body, I think it's your obligation to keep it in shape..." Girl: "...If you say it ruins your body, look at all the people that have lived to be a hundred who smoke." Boy: "Look at my father, he's been smoking since he was about 14 or soy and he smokes quite heavy, and he's had no ill effects whatsoever." M x Ix Boy: "That's right. I think everyr,ody -- smokers vmoke -- becausee smoking -- everybody says it's bad for your health -- there's no noticeable medical effect that you're ruining your body or anything. There's nothing, I think the most effective thing I've ever seen was in the movie in school'where they showed operation for lung cancer, I mean the so-called kids in the square, the kids who everybody kind of left out when they smoked -- they are the kids who fainted when they saw this disgusting sight and I think it really had an effect on people. I think that something in the line of this sort of education might be a very good idea. I still think the biggest questionis whether it's wrong -- it's hard to say. For me, I know it's wrong. It's hard for me to judge for everyone else." Abernathy: "Of that foursome, as you may have guessed, two smoke and two don't." ... ..4,, ~ . .. - , 3' .. . ...