NO SMOKING

[Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] wait a minute don't light that cigarette [Music] [Applause] [Music] innocent looking thing isn't it just a piece of paper and some dried shredded plant leaves inside nothing to get excited about [Music] or is it in the united states alone last year over 60 million smokers puffed now get this 400 billion cigarettes not million billion and how much did these little paper incinerators cost them four and a half billion dollars salone that doesn't include pipes cigars lighters matches ashtrays cigarette holders or what have you and it doesn't include one other little item fire insurance men will tell you that one out of every three fires in the united states is a result of smoking pretty expensive habits [Music] [Music] all right so you can afford the 150 to 500 a year steady smoking is going to cost you and you're going to be careful and not set any of those thousands of fires are there any other reasons why you shouldn't smoke there are plenty of reasons why you shouldn't but they can be pretty well condensed into three main ones one you're not going to live as well two you're not going to be as healthy and three you're not going to live as long let's consider the first one if you smoke you can make up your mind you're not going to be as good at sports your wind is shorter you tire easily your heart works harder and your coordination isn't as good there's no arguing with that too many research studies have verified it the old cliche about a cigarette helping you enjoy food is just so much rot too if you smoke you won't have as keen and appetite your dinner won't taste or smell as good and you aren't going to digest it as well what that adds up to is that you aren't going to enjoy eating half as much ever wonder what insomnia was like just smoke steadily for a while you'll find out you'll roll and toss in bed with the best of them and even if you can sleep you won't sleep as well before we take a quick look at the second point the effect of tobacco on your health let's see what's in a cigarette that might act on the body aldehydes the chemicals in disinfectants and lacquers and embalming fluid arsenic a deadly poison used in insecticides carbolic acid a powerful caustic formic acid the chemical that makes a bee sting swell up in pain methyl alcohol this is deadly wood alcohol hydrocyanic acid this is the cyanide gas used for executing criminals now all these chemicals and many others are in cigarettes in my new quantities but there is one poison just as deadly as any of the others that occurs in definite concentration and that is nicotine this is an almost unbelievably deadly poison the nicotine from just two cigarettes injected into the blood will kill a man instantly a drop on the skin of a rabbit causes convulsions and death now consider every year thousands of gallons of nicotine are drawn into american smokers lungs what effect does that have on national health well we can safely say that tobacco smoke is far more concentrated and far more active chemically than the air pollution about which everybody complains now let's take a look at some of the direct effects of smoking what do cigarettes do to the heart they do plenty one cigarette can raise the heartbeat from 10 to 60 beats a minute it raises the blood pressure 40 or 50 points when an expectant mother smokes it even raises the pulse of her unborn baby no wonder a doctor's first words to a heart disease patient are give up smoking you ever notice how many smokers complain of cold hands and feet there's a reason habitual smoking means poor circulation it shrinks the small blood vessels causing the cold sensation in extreme cases this leads to burgers disease and amputation of the feet and hands that makes it much tougher to light a cigarette anyway here's a traditional american scene that first cigarette behind the barn or garage and the reactions are typical too coughing and nausea funny huh but think of the irritation to the delicate membranes of mouth throat and lungs that cause these reactions multiply this by a few hundred thousand and you see how the habitual smoker assaults these sensitive organs in his lifetime did you know that tobacco tar has been used to induce cancer in laboratory animals now consider every drag of smoke from a cigarette introduces the combustion products of this cancer-inducing tar into the nose and mouth into the throat and into your lungs the logical result what do you think cancer of the lungs was a relatively rare disease 20 years ago but in searching for a cause for the alarming increase the last two decades public health service researchers observed this understand what that means the increase in deaths from lung cancer almost exactly parallels the growth of smoking in the last 20 years the villain without much doubt is our lady nicotine as a matter of fact it's a rare thing to find a victim of lung cancer who hasn't been a heavy cigarette smoker if you smoke a pipe you have a lot less chance to get lung cancer but then you've got a much better chance for cancer of the mouth or lip there are other effects too on the eyesight the brain and some researchers even claim now that tobacco actually represses the reproductive organs but what's the overall effect that's right when you smoke you're shortening your life point number three and by how much by anywhere from two to ten years depending on how much you smoke life the most precious commodity we have and everywhere around us it's literally going up in smoke all right why do so many people smoke anyway the answer is that there's a certain amount of gratification of the senses from tobacco perhaps the real reason people smoke is habit a habit that once acquired is hard to break as you can see from joe here who swore off smoking this morning again he's failed one more time but if you asked him he'd undoubtedly tell you he can quit smoking anytime he feels like it you ever noticed how many habitual smokers wish they could give it up now let's take a look at our three points again almost invariably a heavy smoker if he can manage to give up tobacco finds he enjoys life more is sick far less frequently or seriously and lives longer there are all sorts of methods for breaking the smoking habit psychologists authors doctors they all have pet methods and books and articles are written on them every day but there's one method of giving up smoking that's the easiest most painless of all and with practically no failures what is it the only sure way but far and away the best one don't acquire the habit in the first place don't smoke at all simple advice like that has a hard time making itself understood against the tremendous flood of tobacco advertising millions of dollars are spent every year and every year they produce 800 000 new smokers phenomenal for a habit that does nobody the slightest good that costs billions of dollars and it is undermining the health of the entire nation in a way that is only now becoming understood but if these arguments don't add up if you still want to smoke go ahead light up might as well get started on those 12 and a half miles of cigarettes you'll puff in your tobacco shortened lifetime if you become even a moderate smoker now you're making sense you