In this section you will learn:
In Maryland,
when taxes were raised from $.16 to $.36 185,000 Marylanders quit smoking.
Another study found that teen smoking dropped 7% for every 10% increase
in cigarette prices.
Cigarettes have been around since the 1600’s, not becoming popular in the United States until post WWII. In 1930, researchers in Cologne, Germany, first made the correlation between cancer and smoking. Slowly throughout the nineteen hundreds it became public knowledge that smokers do not live as long as non-smokers did. The 1950’s and 1960’s was the first signs of government intervention. The most signicant result of political pressure during these years resulted in forming of the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and health. This lead to the decision in 1965 by the congress for Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act requiring warnings to go on all cigarette packages. Finally awareness of lung cancer caused by smoking was publicized.
After these initial steps to educate the public, government policies and scrutinizing of cigarette companies started gaining speed. In 1971 the U.S. government banned all broadcast advertising for cigarettes. Since the 1980’s there have been an overwhelming number of lawsuits and government policies concerning cigarettes and cigarette smoking.
At
first the government policies during the fifties were not very effective
in decreasing smoking, but as these policies get stricter we are seeing
less smoking. There is huge debate over whether or not creating taxes,
restrictions and other policies will actually help to decrease smoking.
The government has had a substantial role in the success or collapse of
cigarette companies. The main results of the policies are tobacco
companies now are trying to diversify their products in order to avoid
demise.
Click
here for a timeline of the major events in the tobacco industry’s history,
courtesy of ABC.com