Health Hazards Quotes
Manava Dharma Shastra. This text is a part of the Hindu Holy Texts. Hindus believe that Manu was a prophet whose text is revealed or inspired. This is one of the earlier prescriptions to maintain public health.
This was the first cigarette company that admitted what by then had been known by the cigarette companies for almost 50 years during which they continued to knowingly kill people and deny that there was any harm that could come from smoking.
In the 1950s evidence was pointing to the relationship between cigarette smoking and cancer, Then scientic studes showed that cigarettes were a causae of lung cancer and ohe forms of cancer. The tobacco industry had their own research that showed that tobacco was also addicting. Rather then give up the profits they were geting from cigaette sales, the tobacco companies hired John Hill and at his suggestion formed a "Tobacco Rsearch Comittee" where the followd Hill's strategy of casting doubt on the accuracy and completeness of the research shing the causal link. Even after the Surgeon General's relase of his 1963 Report explaining the extensive evidence that was then ammassed about the danger of cigarettes. None the less there was little money to publicize the Surgeon General's report, and the tobacco companies spent a fortune hammering the message that the research was not yet sufficient and more study is needed before America puts all the tobacco farmers and cigarette ndustry workers out of jubs when the evidence was "so doubtfull". The efforts to spread the disinformation about cigarettes actually delayed the public education programs, label warnings, media focus for a few decades. Slowly there were so many people dying a year (about 1/2 million) that most Americans finally befan to see throught the deception of the industry. But that delay was resonsible for more deaths and debilitations of Americans than had suffered that fate during all the Wars in American history. They were so successful casting doubt on one of the most proven of scientic medical research, politicians picked up the same techniques do negate many otehr scientifc findings that threatened their vested interests or where the implications of the resarch cere contrary to their ideology. Climaate change denyers used the exact same techniques that the tobacco indudstry used so skillfully with cancer.
This quotation on the surface appears to be a clear summary of the scientifically measured negative aspects to coal. However, it was an extremely bitter political quotation. The reason was that West Virginia and the other parts of Appalachia depend on coal for employment—jobs for the residents in a poverty-stricken area where there are few other potential sources for employment. Coal is also a key economic component of the economy in Wyoming. These states regard the reduction of coal as an energy source as one of the most serious political threats to their states and the treat it accordingly. West Virginia has Democratic Senators and congressmen from Appalachia. Wyoming has Republicans. Both exert enormous pressure on their Congressional Party leadership and the White House. With the country and Congress split at the time, Republicans had control of the House, and Democrats, the Senate and the Presidency—by very narrow margins so the leaderships cannot offend anyone in Congress. The result is that there was almost total silence about the huge coal pollution problem, and even in the second decade of the 21st century, where shale natural Gas was extractable in sufficient quantities to totally replace Coal as a fuel source, few in Congress or the administration ever even spoke of adopting a national policy to this effect, much less passed any legislation. During this period many Americans sickened and died as a result of coal every year with no end in sight.
