Should this guy carry the can for one branch of human stupidity?

[KerrAvon]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20042217
Not the best legacy!

[Brenden]

No, we all make our own choices - no one is forced to smoke or take drugs - you take responsibility for your own actions.

[Baldric]

Is there actually any room left on the AB pillory?

[Booldawg]

I doubt they had a handle on the true damage to health in his day. Anyone who smokes with the knowledge of the dangers should collectively carry the the can.

[anotheoldgit]

Might as well blame Sir Walter Raleigh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7YBaiJMnik

[jd_1984]

Interesting article..... This could be discuused forever!!!

Personally, the warnings of smoking to your health have been made clear for decades now and those that begin to smoke do so knowing the risks. However, before the health risks were known and properly understood, people took up the habbit to be fashionable and to releive stress not realising what it could do to their health. That said, the inventor of the ciggarette entered into this being unaware himself. So can we hold him responsible, unlikely. Also if he didnt invent the ciggarrete, somebody else would have eventually, it was hardly a ground breaking concept.
Question is, if you could go back in time and show this guy todays evidence on smoking related illness, would he still invent them, bearing in mind the profit he no doubt made?????
And in conclusion, ciggarrete manufacture is still an enormous industry, how do ciggarrete manufacturers and their CEO's sleep at night?? Very well I would imagine $$$$$$$$$$$$ !!!!!

[McMouse]

Might as well have a pop at whoever started cultivating tobacco as a commercial crop.

[jno]

some of these look hilarious now but were normal enough 50+ years ago

http://wellmedicated....bacco-advertisements/

Though having said that, surely "Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere" must always have seemed demented?

[Booldawg]

"Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere" Is that still not the case today?

[Old_Geezer]

Does society have a responsibilty to those of it's citizens who are hard of thinking and fail to protect themselves ?

That guy may be to blame for the years & years I had to put up with other folk's thoughtlessness towards others, but I suspect had he not been responsible for the cigarette then some other individual would have done so instead. Humans tend to think of what profits themselves.

[youngmafbog]

But everyone has to blame someone other than themselves these days.

Plus, where there is blame there is a claim. Watch his estate/relatives being sued by the end of the week.

[Prudie]

Who invented the motor car? Should they also carry the can for the millions of road deaths worldwide? etc etc. I believe nature would have found some other way to weed us out anyway.

[LazyGun]

When examining and comparing the relative merits and damages of, say, cigarettes and cars, it is important to recognise that cars, transport etc have contributed positively to economic growth, individual freedoms, shrinking distances etc, and that deaths attributable to automobiles are largely accidental.

Cigarettes on the other hand have little obvious positive contributions to society, and will kill you prematurely if you use them exactly as the product is designed.

[jno]

try it on me and see, booldawg

<reaches for marlinspike>