Fifty years of anti-smoking

In the early 1960s three American bodies - the Cancer Society, the Heart Association and the Lung Association - began working together to educate Americans about the health hazards associated with tobacco use, and Becky traces how this ‘education’ turned into a global crusade for the next fifty years.



“The first report on smoking and health was published by the Royal College of Physicians in 1962,” says Becky, “and first World Conference on Smoking and Health was held in New York in 1967.”



“In 1969 the WHO’s regional committee for Europe and the Americas passed resolutions to make cigarette smoking history by the end of the century,” says Becky, “and this committee also set up a global network of anti-smoking professionals working together to achieve its aim by lobbying governments.”



“The 2nd World Conference on Smoking and Health was held in London in 1971, but it was at the 3rd World Conference on Smoking and Health held in New York in 1975 that the Godber Blueprint for making cigarette smoking history was set in stone with strategies to achieve the WHO’s final goal by 2000.”



“In 1979, at the 4th World Conference on Smoking and Health, Stockholm, the World Health Day theme was ‘Smoking or Health, the Choice is Yours’ – a reasonable theme,” says Becky, “but by the 5th World Conference on Smoking and Health held at Winnipeg, Canada, in 1983 there was a shift in membership which made its mark at the 6th conference.”



“By then, anti-smoking activists had infiltrated the health departments of their home governments and, once in positions of relative power, they were not only able to allocate tax-payer funds to private tobacco control organizations but also to put themselves forward as ‘professionals’ for media advocacy of their anti-smoking cause.”



“An anti-smoking industry, funded by taxpayers – particularly smokers via tobacco tax – had come into being.”



“By 1984, following a call by former U.S. Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, for a smoke-free society by 2000 - reiterating the Godber Blueprint of 1975 - the global anti-smoking crusade stepped up.”



“In 1985, tobacco-Free America (TFA) was created to form coalitions to lobby legislators, regulators and other public officials about the urgent need for enactment of tobacco-control legislation to achieve a smoke-free society by the year 2000,” says Becky. “TFA was also instrumental in changing public attitudes towards smoking, making it out to be a health hazard and a socially unacceptable behavior.”



“The first no smoking day was observed – of all places - in Shanghai, China, in May 1986; and in the following year, 1987, the 6th World Conference on Smoking and Health was held in Tokyo.”



“The first Global No Smoking Day was celebrated on 7th April 1988 coinciding with the 40th anniversary of WHO (a body dedicated since its inception in 1948 to end smoking).”



“The World Conferences on Smoking & Health continued, like a moveable feast, attracting more and more delegates eager for fame and fortune on the anti-smoking bandwagon,” says Becky, “In 1990 the 7th was held in Perth; in 1992 the 8th was held in Buenos Aires; in 1994 the 9th was held in Paris; in 1997 the 10th was held in Beijing; in 2000 the 11th was held in Chicago; in 2003 the 12th was held in Helsinki; in 2006 the 13th was held in Washington; in 2009 the 14th was held in Mumbai; and in 2012 the 15th World Conference is due to take place Singapore.”



“That’s fifty years of anti-smoking crusading!” laughs Becky. “These guys are just using smoking as an excuse to get on the WHO gravy train!”





Read more by Becky on this issue:

Bogus health research

Sinful Pleasures

Anti-smoking media tarts

Licensed to smoke?

Who voted for WHO?

How’s the war against smoking going?

Fight big tobacco not smokers!

Anti-smoking media tarts

The bulk of anti-smoking ‘research’ has, according to Becky, been conducted by a very small number of people in the public heath field who then promote their research via media and public presentations, gaining more and more prominence for themselves, warranting them being called media tarts.

“Tobacco control was a sweet deal by which governments could legitimately claim a much bigger slice of Big Tobacco’s massive profits for their own revenue – as well as slugging the hapless smokers with tobacco tax,” explains Becky, “but what has not been much publicized (for obvious reasons) is that in return for giving governments a means by which they can increase revenue – and save lives, hopefully – the WHO made two demands: give us a cut of the loot and employ our anointed anti-tobacco activists in lucrative lifelong positions within public health departments as tobacco ‘controllers’.”

“I don’t have to tell you who these anti-smoking public health tarts are – you know who they are already by their regular appearances on TV, the radio and in newspapers whenever they want to announce some ‘new’ research or some draconian tobacco control measure.”

“These anti-smoking public health tarts have been around since the early days of the war against smoking - when they were mediocre university students with no prospects and thought it would be a lark to join some radicals going around knocking fags out of old men’s’ mouths.”

“They got into the anti-smoking movement in its early days, and have benefited enormously from the tobacco fraud perpetrated upon us,” says Becky. “They received first class tickets and accommodation for all of the World Conferences on Tobacco and Health – rarely attending any of the presentations – and they’re now at retirement age.”

“Rather than collecting their lucrative government pensions and moving on to a new life, these guys cannot give up and will not give up,” sighs Becky. “They’ve made a hatred of smokers their entire life focus, and despite their huge gains in tobacco control some of them are still deeply resentful that the Godber Blueprint goal of 1975 – ‘there will be no smoking by 2000’ - never materialized.”

“By seeing Big Tobacco as the source of the problem, it was felt that once its media, marketing and political campaigning was banned that smoking would stop,” says Becky. “Obviously, for smoking to have continued – and to have attracted a new generation of smokers – it is not the industry’s fault, and could very well be the fault of the anti-smoking media tarts themselves in bringing the issue to the fore time and time again.”

“In many ways, some of these guys have been as much duped by the system as ordinary non-smokers have been,” explains Becky. “Some genuinely expected that their work would see the end of smoking by 2000, but those who saw the bigger picture – that it was never intended to ban smoking – are delighted that the media spotlight remains on them and their work continues with a new generation of smokers.”

“Unfortunately for them, though, it’s not just their age that is catching up with them,” laughs Becky. “Their bogus old research – tarted up in a million different ways to make it look relevant forty years later – is becoming as much a joke in media circles as their autocratic styles.”

“The younger generation of smokers sees these sad old anti-smoking media tarts as deceptive frauds peddling self-serving propaganda under the guise of public health credibility and scholarship,” explains Becky. “They are not fooled by old farts calling themselves 'Dr' when, in fact, it is a PhD in some obscure social science that these guys have, not a medical degree; and neither are they fooled by the so-called anti-tobacco ‘research’ because much of the evidence to support anti-smoking research was simply made up – similar to the Climategate research.”

“Also, the anti-smokers dream that smokers will be legally discriminated against in employment, opening up employment for the less qualified, is being torn down,” says Becky. “Colorado, Kentucky, Oregon, Tennessee and Virginia have enacted anti-discrimination protection for smokers - putting them into a ‘protected’ class - and several states have adopted measures preventing local bodies from enacting further smoking restrictions.”

“The autocratic style of the anti-smokers – we are right and you are wrong – is seen as stupid and old-fashioned,” says Becky. “It worked well in the 20th century with the regimented children of the Baby Boomers, but Gen Y is altogether a much smarter generation – very media savvy – and can see through these old media tarts and what they’re doing – trying to justify the persecution of smokers as a health measure!”

Read more by Becky on this issue:

Bogus health research

Sinful Pleasures

Licensed to smoke?

Le Grand Fag Parasite

self-employment in parasitic britain

parasites and brain drains