Things DO Change...Sometimes for the Better
This "Made for Living" column was written for publication on January 13, 1983, focusing on an issue which was, in those days, only beginning to surface in the public consciousness. In the intervening years, much has changed for many of the reasons set forward here. b It was nineteen years ago this week that the Surgeon General of the United States first issued his statement about the dangers of cigarette smoking; nineteen years since we were first made aware of the direct connection between smoking and cancer, lung disease, and heart disease. And just last year, the new Surgeon General made the statement that smoking is "the chief preventable cause of death in this country." And yet, everywhere I go, people are smoking at what seems to be an alarming rate. I must admit to a certain negative bias since I have never been a smoker. And I also confess a growing resentment of this habit which not only affects the practitioner, but also those around h...