SLk-for-me

Opposition to anti-smoking labels.

Opposition to Anti-smoking labels.
Every time I buy a packet of cigarettes I now am forced to deal with the visual bombardment that is anti-smoking labels. These were put in place to scare children and weak-minded adults who perhaps after seeing pictures of cancerous growths etc. will re-think certain life style choices they have made.
Also text information is often seen. Smokers die young etc. Many of these warnings that include the word “smoker” are ambiguous at best. I find myself dismissive of the vagueness of these warnings. I do know you can have too much of a good thing(great if I’m honest. Really great.) However the inability of the anti-smoking lobbyists to use decent figures or percentages in their work makes me feel as though some form of foul propaganda is afoot. First of all the word “smokers”. This Amorphous term seems to sum up everyone who has ever smoked. Thus in the term “Smokers die young” it would have you believe that an individual who has a cigarette per month is equally likely to die of smoking related illnesses as a chain smoker, burning through five packs a day. For comparison, take alcohol or burgers. Fast food chains are always in the public eye of causing obesity. The Fats in their foods, the low price and the fast service can lead to an individual’s weight gain. HOWEVER, just because we are aware that consumption of fatty foods leads to heart disease diabetes etc, we do not have labels upon said food saying “People who eat burgers die young” because in all reality if you were to eat 5 burgers a day you probably would die young, but if this phrase was to be taken seriously then every person who had ever eaten a burger could be assumed to die young. My point is that there is such generalisation to these labels on smoking packets. In stats alcohol caused deaths are almost equal to smoking caused deaths, but there are no warning labels on alcohol. Also, recently upon a packet was a person who had clearly never heard of oral hygiene and had a pretty horrendous case of meth mouth. If you are unaware of what meth mouth is, Google it. Basically the harsh chemicals in crystal meth destroy the users teeth and gums. Just because this person happened to also smoke, does not mean it is morally acceptable to trick individuals into believing smoking can have such intense effects. So in essence the people who put these labels view you as a statistic, a passing number of which they can manipulate and influence just by showing scary images and saying “this will happen”. You yourself should decide and take onboard the realistic health dangers that go with the volume of whatever you put into your own body, not the hyper-exaggerated and irrationally generalised statements of but a few.