Hazards of Tobacco, 1913
It’s kind of fun - and funny - to look back at the “scientific” opinion of tobacco use prior to the 1930s; back then, there were no tobacco lobbyists as we today know them, and smoking hadn’t become glamorized by Hollywood. Anyone who thinks the hazards of tobacco use are a recent discovery would be in for a rude surprise, as these excerpts from a 1913 textbook on hygeine shows:
Remember, this was back before discrimination - let alone child labor - became the contentious issues they have since developed into; the days of NINA and an era when listing your religion on your resume or CV was expected.
If you think this seems a little bit like propaganda, that’s because it is. A couple decades later, smoking was viewed more favorably, and new threats were on the horizon. Why, a mere four decades after these lines and sentiments were published in 1913, they’d make a return to prominence and popularity - just substituting “Communism” for “tobacco”, “Communist” for “smoker”; a decade after that, it would be marijuana…
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