It was in 1964 that the U.S. surgeon general's office released the report, which became famous as it linked smoking to cancer. At that time almost 50% of Americans were smoking.
There is a TV series called "Mad Men" set on Madison avenue, which is a good example of exactly how much people were smoking back then. The characters light up regularly, at the office, at home, in restaurants, bars, and in cars, without a second thought, which is quite shocking for most North Americans nowadays.
Over the past 40 years things have changed or our behaviour has been changed – education, lawsuit, advertising restrictions, cigarette taxes – have caused us to take on different bad habits, while only one in five adults is smoking now.
Of course, this is only the case for Western countries. Some countries are just getting fired up. In developing countries smoking rates are well over 50% and these rates are rising. In poor countries the rate of female smoking is increasing especially fast.
The citizens of Western countries are not comprehending that they have made huge changes and there is a point where they need to stop infringing on people's (smoker's) rights.
[Via: baltimoresun.com]
