Barbecuing at the beach this summer is popular even though you can’t pop a beer. The smell of smoke rising from the coals or gas grill is a reminder of summers past. The smell of a cigarette, on the other hand, is a reminder of summers future, when coughing and cancer can possibly be companions. Why do people light up these days when they know the ramifications of the evil weed?
I startled one of my favorite nieces engaged in a visit with the Marlboro man outside a recent family barbecue. She was sneaking a smoke out of the house and never expected to see her aunt.
“Judy!” I shouted. She quickly placed the cigarette behind her back and dropped it on the street, using her right sandal to drive it into the ground like a smashed bug. “You’re not smoking, are you?” I said in my dumb response.
In my day, as the saying goes, smoking was popular among doctors, athletes and dreamy college coeds wanting to look like the girl in the Salem cigarette ad running over the hillside. In my niece Judy’s day, smoking is the killer it always was; just read what’s written on a pack of cigarettes: “Surgeon General’s Warning: Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy.” Add to that list that smoking is expensive, and it pollutes rivers and streams. Ask anyone what was the worst part of our local University City community clean-up: seeing cigarette butts hanging onto the side of the medians. Smoking is a filthy habit.
One of my U.C. friends threw herself a party six days before she was scheduled for radiation for a brain tumor she hadn’t known was growing as silently as her fingernails. It was a Midwestern feast, worthy of a woman from Wisconsin.
Why did my friend get that brain tumor? If you believe in God, then you will answer that only God knows. My friend was a lifetime smoker until five years before being diagnosed with the brain tumor. Our government subsidizes tobacco growers and simultaneously footnotes cigarette packages with warning signs. Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Louis Sullivan attacked Philip Morris in the ’90s for sponsoring athletic events for women tennis players. He was quoted as calling it “dishonest, irresponsible and unconscionable.” He encouraged the athletes to protest as he also brought to life the dark public relations program of R.J. Reynolds. The tobacco company went after young working women with little education with a new cigarette called Dakotas. Why didn’t he go all the way and attack federal tobacco subsidies?
My friend was 47 when she decided to quit smoking after a 30-year habit. Maybe she would have gotten the brain tumor anyway. Who is to say?
When you are young like my niece, you think you have forever to stop smoking, to begin an exercise regimen, to get it together. After you turn the corner on 50, you get a good view of your own mortality. It is up to women of all ages to take responsibility as consumers of medicine and good health practices. Is it easy to quit? No! Women relapse for different reasons than men, according to the American Lung Association. Stress, weight control and negative emotions are likely reasons.
Smoking is directly responsible for 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths in America. In 1987, lung cancer surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of death in women. In 2007, an estimated 70,880 women died of lung and bronchus cancers. Annually, cigarette smoking kills an estimated 178,408 women in the United States. It also doubles the risk for coronary heart disease.
My friend died of complications from her brain tumor. She is sorely missed by her family and friends. My niece still has a chance to lead a smoke-free life, but only she can make that choice. She likes to help others, so learning that secondhand smoke kills 50,000 nonsmoking Americans a year may be the best pitch to get her to quit. She wouldn’t want to hurt others, just herself.
The American Lung Association has a Smokefree Air 2010 Challenge. Go to the Web site at www.lungusa.com for more information.