If I Were A Smoker
If I were a smoker, I would be thinking seriously these days about my habit. In fact, I think the current studies linking smoking with lung cancer and heart disease would be enough to frighten me into giving up the smoking habit immediately. I have always tried to take a moderate sensible attitude toward smoking; yet here are two statements which are undeniable. (1) If the current reputable reports are correct, smoking is responsible for a higher death rate from lung cancer and heart disease. (2) If smoking actually does cause these diseases, it is harmful to my body, and it is therefore sinful! Three such reports, linking smoking with these diseases, have come to my attention within the past week alone. They were:
(1) READERS' DIGEST. (July 1954) The first article in the current Digest is called, "The Facts Behind the Cigarette Controversy." The Digest attempts to summarize and evaluate all the conflicting statements about smoking and cancer, and presents the following as fact. (1) At the Washington University Medical School, St. Louis, mice have developed skin cancer when their backs were painted with tar derived from cigarette smoke. (2) Lung cancer is increasing rapidly. There were 3,400 deaths from this disease in 1933, 22,000 deaths in 1952. It is estimated that if 'the present rate of increase continues, one out of every 12 men living in 1970 will have lung cancer. (3) The Digest says, "When researchers compared the sales figures for cigarettes and the statistics for lung cancer they noticed a remarkable parallel. On the charts the rising lung cancer curve bears a striking resemblance to the curve which plots the cigarette sales."
Women have just begun to adopt (to their disgrace!) the smoking habit, and the Digest reports that lung-cancer deaths among women have begun to increase in proportion to their consumption of cigarettes. (4) Two British doctors (Richard Doll and A. B. Hill) interviewed 1357 men with lung cancer, and they found that only seven were non-smokers. The two doctors conclude, "Smoking is a factor, and an important one, in the production of lung cancer."
(2) 'AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY. (Reported in Kansas City Star, June 21, 1954) This past week a long-awaited report was issued by the American Cancer Society on the relationship between smoking and cancer, and studies by this organization should be as reliable as any now available. This report was based on interviews with nearly 200,000 healthy men in 1952 (ages 50 to 70) and a checkup on the causes of death among nearly 5,000 who died within twenty months.
Here is the shocking fact: the American Cancer Society reports that among men smoking as much as a pack a day, the death rate from all causes was 75 per cent higher than among non-smokers. One's chances of dying were nearly doubled by smoking! They found that among pack-a-day smokers, death from lung cancer and heart disease were twice as high as among non-smokers (within age group: 50 to 64). And the American Cancer Society has concluded that smoking may be even a greater force in producing heart disease deaths than those by lung cancer.
Two other facts from this report are of interest. One is that the more one smokes, the greater is the danger.
Another is that in Norway during World War II when cigarette smoking declined, deaths from heart disease also declined.
(3) BRITISH MEDICAL SOCIETY. (Reported in morning Kansas City Star, June 25, 1954). Last week the British Medical Society published the results of a three year study on smoking. The study was based on interviews with 40,000 English doctors on their smoking habits and a study of death causes among them. The conclusion reached is that smokers are more likely to die from lung cancer and heart disease than non-smokers. In fact, among the '789 deaths from all causes studied, not a single non-smoker died of lung cancer!
Perhaps the most interesting part of this British Medical Society report is in its tabulation of the death rate among light and heavy smokers. The death rate for all smokers was .66 per thousand. Light smokers (those smoking less than fourteen cigarettes per day) had a death rate of .48 per thousand, while heavy smokers (twenty-five or more per day) had a death rate of 1.14. Thus, the death rate among heavy smokers was almost three times that among light smokers.
CONCLUSION. Christian men, think seriously about your smoking! All of you will admit readily that your smoking is an expensive habit and that you would be better off if you had never begun. However, your expensive habit may be far more than that; it may be a menace to your health. It may actually jeopardize your chances to "live long upon the earth." You cannot dismiss lightly long research by such organizations as the American Cancer Society and the British Medical Society; yet if their research is accurate, you actually increase your chances of having heart disease and lung cancer by your smoking. Is it worth it?
Moreover, the New Testament teaches that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, not to be mistreated or abused. "Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? And ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body" (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). If these reports are accurate you increase your chances of an early death by smoking. Thus, since smoking is injurious to your body, it is therefore sinful (still assuming the accuracy of these reports). Is your smoking really worth the chance? If I were a smoker, I would be thinking seriously!