Tobacco Warnings

A very interesting post regarding the numbers and how they are utilized to play into our insecurities, wellwisher.

It has been said by many that the only things we can 'sell' are 'fear' and 'greed'. If our economy was weighted only toward those things that were truly essential for our existence, it would be a very different world indeed.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

Originally tobacco was more of a ceremonial use item, or so I was informed in the past, and that the daily consumption of tobacco products is a relatively new phenomena of the last few hundred years as the tobacco plant has spread around the world and become an economic crop.

http://www1.american.edu/ted/turkish-tobacco.htm

While waging a war on tobacco on the one hand and citing the costs to the health care system, loss of life and days of work lost, the same countries are exporting tobacco leaf and other products made from this crop.

If they were SERIOUS about this debate, it would be illegal to grow, tax and export tobacco.

This is an economic issue and the rest of the debate is political window dressing because tobacco is a public panacea. Nicotine is a drug with some interesting BENEFICIAL and MEDICINAL effects although the delivery system of smoking tobacco as a leaf has documented negative effects on health.

A lot of 'smoke and mirrors' around this issue (pun intended) and globally, it is not going away anytime soon, because tobacco is one of the more lucrative cash crops in developing nations, in part because it is labor intensive and employs a significant percentage of some populations.

Top Tobacco Leaf Exporting Nations

European Union ... 18.1% of world total
Brazil ... 16.6%
United States ... 9.9%
Zimbabwe ... 9.1%
Turkey ... 6.5%
China ... 5.6%
India ... 5.5%
Malawi ... 5.3%
Russia ... 3.9%
Other European countries ... 2.0%


Read more at Suite101: Top Ten Tobacco Countries: China, India & Brazil Among Top Tobacco Nations | Suite101.com http://www.suite101.com/content/top-ten-tobacco-countries-a8450#ixzz1PxcARH4D

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

I don't mind people smoking all that they want to so long as it's not around me and I don't have to breath in the smoke. BUT, when they have a stroke, or lung cancer, or have that first heart attack - they should have to pay for their own treatment.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.