Tobacco.org

LETTER: Seduction, the 1960s and cigarettes 

Sir: You report ("Widow loses 12-year compensation battle with cigarette firm", 1 June) that Lord Nimmo Smith said, "I am satisfied that ... by 1964 the general public in the United Kingdom ... were aware of the health risks associated with smoking".

I am satisfied that his Lordship lived in a world that was completely detached from anybody else's in the 1960s. I was seduced into smoking by the culture of the times, led by advertising. Commercials encouraged, nay educated everybody, that not to smoke left you a social outcast.

Health warnings! Only that smoking a certain brand of cigarette cured all ills of modern living, whilst enhancing your attractiveness and social standing. If it were commonly known that smoking held health risks, why did it take the insurance industry nearly 20 years before penalising potential customers who smoked?

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