The Marlboro Man and the Tobacco Industry

The Winston Man Dave Goerlitz spoke to about 50 people on the Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) Taylorsville Redwood Campus on October 26, 2011.

Goerlitz talked about the dangers of tobacco and how the industry affects children through advertising.

“The Marlboro Man can’t be here today because he’s…” Goerlitz points the microphone at the audience whose members responded with “Dead.”

Making about $100,000 a year, Goerlitz says that it was his job to make smoking look good for guys.

Goerlitz says that children are confused. They know that smoking is bad because it smells bad and teachers tell them it is bad, but when they see their parents smoking and ads that depict beautiful people doing adventurous things while smoking, they aren’t sure how to sort out the incongruities.

Ninety-three percent of tobacco users start using before they are 14 years old.

Vasquez Wants Smoking Restrictions

Councilman Fernando Vasquez wants the City Council to restrict smoking cigarettes at parks and public gatherings.

Vasquez requested the council consider the issue at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
“I really only want restrictions in public areas, like parks, or at special events, like Taste of Downey,” he said. “I don’t want any restrictions on private property. None at all.”

He mentioned an effort by the Kiwanis Green Team this month in which members of the team collected 4,000 cigarette butts at Downey’s Parks.

The Green Team is a group of environmentally concerned youth.

“I mean, the right of a child to breathe healthy air at a clean park should supersede the right of people to smoke around kids,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez’s efforts are sure to meet stiff resistance from Councilman Mario Guerra, who unsuccessfully tried to shoot down a similar effort in August. But the issue never came to vote because Vasquez was absent from the meeting.

Smoking Hookah Dangerous in Lebanon

What is known here in Lebanon as the Narjileh, also known as Hubble bubble, shisha, or Al Fakher tobacco hookah, has become an everyday way of leisure.

When you go to restaurants close by the Beirut sea shore, almost every table has two or more hookas being smoked.

The irony of the situation is that many smokers believe that smoking a narjileh is much lighter and therefore less harmful than the hazards of cigarette smoking:

It wouldn't take you long to find a Hubble bubble store, where you can buy pipes, tobacco, hoses, coal containers, and tongs. The latest trend is home delivery.
Even people under the age of 18 seem to be victims of the social pressure to smoke a hookah as a relaxing pastime with friends.