Ashes to Ashes

Download or read book Ashes to Ashes written by Stephen Lock and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 1998 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Future historians will wonder why, despite the risks, society persisted in its warm relationship with the cigarette; by the end of the century global consumption was still rising. The 1995 symposium at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine not only examined tobacco's connection with health, but the varied attitudes towards smoking, which have included regarding it as 'manly', relaxing, fashionable - and decadent. A particular feature was a witness seminar attended not only by those who had made the initial discovery but by those with a crucial role in promoting public awareness of the dangers. And, as shown in this book, we still cannot escape the paradox that, while a considerable proportion of a country's population is hooked on the cigarette, the tobacco industry and the government are equally addicted to the profits and tax revenues it generates.