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My father worked for Reynolds Tobacco in the 1950s. They knew then that cigarettes were carcinogenic, believe me.
But there's more.
Try cutting open a cigarette. What do you see? I'll tell you what you don't see -- tobacco leaf. What you see is nicotine-and-chemical-soaked paper. This is also a relatively recent development. Today's cigarettes are nothing but a delivery device for an addictive drug.
Long commutes today are somewhat of an analogy to smoking back then. Everyone knows that the more hours you spend in traffic, the greater your chances are of a a traffic accident that could kill or maim you.
It's interesting that you bring up long commutes. We are nonsmokers and aren't on the freeways all that often, especially during commute hour. If we are, we are zipping by in the HOV lane because there are two of us. To the right of us, I've noticed many solo drivers smoking, so it seems to me that it's not the long commutes that are the problem (re smoking, as long driving commutes are indeed a separate problem), but that there are still a large number of people who drive solo so that they can smoke, which they cannot do riding public transit.
Heck, I was still getting cigarettes in my c-rations in the late 1970s. My dad was in the Korean war, and he not only got cigarettes in his c-rats, he got whiskey!
Heck, I was still getting cigarettes in my c-rations in the late 1970s. My dad was in the Korean war, and he not only got cigarettes in his c-rats, he got whiskey!
Cigarettes, yes. It was believed that smoking helped relieve stress and suppress hunger. They were part of standard rations until 1975.
However...I'm afraid to say that your dad's recollection is incorrect. Alcohol has not been a part of regular US military rations since 1832 when Andrew Jackson signed an order replacing all whiskey, rum and brandy rations with coffee and sugar.
The one exception is for special circumstances related to "morale" where where alcohol could be issued to the troops when they were not in direct combat zones. This practice pretty much ended in the Army after Vietnam and only happens in the Navy after 45 days of constant deployment and even then it requires that the ship be on "stand down" in a port. The issue became big news recently when several senior commanders started lobbying to issue beer rations to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With that said, even when it was not part of standard rations or being issued under special circumstance, it's never been hard for soldiers to get their hands on alcohol when they wanted it. So, I fully believe that dad had some whiskey with him, but it wasn't government issued.
It's interesting that you bring up long commutes. We are nonsmokers and aren't on the freeways all that often, especially during commute hour. If we are, we are zipping by in the HOV lane because there are two of us. To the right of us, I've noticed many solo drivers smoking, so it seems to me that it's not the long commutes that are the problem (re smoking, as long driving commutes are indeed a separate problem), but that there are still a large number of people who drive solo so that they can smoke, which they cannot do riding public transit.
Well OF COURSE they're smoking in their vehicle - most workplaces you can't even smoke on the property you have to go out on the street. So yes, there are unintended consequences for everything we do.
Cigarettes, yes. It was believed that smoking helped relieve stress and suppress hunger. They were part of standard rations until 1975.
However...I'm afraid to say that your dad's recollection is incorrect. Alcohol has not been a part of regular US military rations since 1832 when Andrew Jackson signed an order replacing all whiskey, rum and brandy rations with coffee and sugar.
The one exception is for special circumstances related to "morale" where where alcohol could be issued to the troops when they were not in direct combat zones. This practice pretty much ended in the Army after Vietnam and only happens in the Navy after 45 days of constant deployment and even then it requires that the ship be on "stand down" in a port. The issue became big news recently when several senior commanders started lobbying to issue beer rations to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With that said, even when it was not part of standard rations or being issued under special circumstance, it's never been hard for soldiers to get their hands on alcohol when they wanted it. So, I fully believe that dad had some whiskey with him, but it wasn't government issued.
Smoking ONLY helps relieve it's OWN WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS. Once you're hooked (I know because I used to smoke) you become nervous and anxious between cigarettes waiting for the next one. Then you feel better for awhile after smoking. Withdrawal causes anxiety, which is then relieved by smoking - "getting a hit". If you aren't addicted, cigarettes have no calming effect otherwise.
It should also be noted that cigarette smoking was largely a 20th century phenomenon. Per capita cigarettes smoked in 1900 was 54 per YEAR. This peaked in 1965, with 4259 per capita cigarettes smoked, on average, every year. That works out to be a little less than a pack a day. 50% of men and 33% of women smoked.
If you look at the graphs, there was a huge increase in cigarette sales between 1940-1950. It was rising steeply before that, but thats when it really shot up, twice as fast as any other decade. So, it took awhile for them to see the massive preponderance of a sample size.
If you really believe this- then how and when- in your mind- will you know the truth about anything?
The earth looks pretty flat when you only believe your own eyes.
You just have to be smart enough to look at the given topic, wade through the data, separate fact from opinion. This money driven science doesn't contaminate every area of research but the big ones are Climate Change, Nutrition, and Drugs.
Big Ag and Food and Beverage companies have completely corrupted the debate on whats healthy to eat/drink and whats not.
I find it odd that the very same ratios of nutrition advocated by the USDA pyramid as a "healthy" diet is the exact same ratios used by feed lots to fatten beef. Its also odd that the pyramid pushes the products of the USDAs biggest customers.
I find it laughable that a box of breakfast cereal is labeled "heart healthy" by the AHA. Clearly that organization has sold their soul. Any claim from them as to what is "heart healthy" isn't worth the time it takes to read it.
Environmental crowd tried to use heart disease tied to a low fat diet to make us stop eating so many animals. Turns out that the whole theory was based on some very shaky science. Turns out that the diet they made us swap to was actually worse for your health. We didn't know enough about what caused heart disease and yet we acted like we did and changed millions of peoples diets and therefore health for the worse. They are now at it in the Global Warming scare. Acting like the debates done, the science is in and we need to punish our economy and livelihood so we can save the Earth.
Its the same with Drugs and Climate Change. Money is buying a lot of bad data and publishing it as fact.
Could there be man caused Climate Change? I don't know. Nobody does right now. I think that the Sun and other natural forces have a much bigger impact on our future climate than whether or not I drive a truck or a prius. What I do know is that acting on what we now know, is pure foolishness because we don't know anything yet.
Last edited by justanokie; 11-30-2015 at 04:27 PM..
Because the tobacco companies were falsifying studies saying that smoking was not harmful or even that it was good for you. This is the reason they were ordered to pay a ton of money in lawsuits.
Oh, don't forget the radioactive x-ray machines for shoe measurements. THOSE likely caused much more harm than sigs by doing it fast and furious.
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