Did people really believe smoking was "good for you" ?

[Loosehead]

Watching an episode of goodnight sweetheart where Gary tries to stop Phoebe smoking whilst pregnant and she says "leave off Gary, everyone knows it's good for you", got me thinking:

We are told that back in the dim and distant that people thought smoking was good for health. Is this urban mythery? where doctors really that stupid or where they "bought" by the tobacco companies? Did they have genuine evidence of health benefits? I mean now it's pretty well accepted that it's bad for the health, although I don't doubt there's still a crackpot doc somewhere who'll say it's good!

[jno]

tobacco company propaganda, plus for a long time there was no specific evidence to the contrary, just the tendency of smokers to cough and wheeze and splutter from the time they got out of bed. Their tendency to die in agony hadn't been spotted. There's a good link to old ads on this thread

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/History/Questio n385646.html

[heathfield]

'Craven A' cigarettes advertising slogan in the 1930s was 'For your throat's sake'!

[juliacornwal]

Back in the early years of the ninteenth century any boy at Eton who didn't smoke was beaten! And to be honest I was a child on the fringes of London in the 50s, and I'll swear that smog was a whole lot worse for you than a cigarette! Not, I hasten to add, that I smoke now - I wouldn't dream of it!!!

[glesga123]

My Doctor used to offer his patients a fag when they went to his surgery. I kid you not. And were only talking about the 1980's here.

[Octavius]

Tobacco is good for you, unless you set it on fire and inhale the smoke. The it's bad.

http://www.worlded.org/us/health/docs/tobacco/ Unit2/3analyzing_ads.html

[reception123]

hi loosehead
one of my neighbours used to be a nurse in a cancer ward in Cardiff about 25 years ago, she said that the doctors used to tell her to go out for a ciggy to get rid of the air that she breathed from cancer patients, i wonder if they would tell her that now!!!!

[Grunty]

It is interesting to read what King James I said at the beginning of the seventeenth century, ending with the words �A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse�.

Of course any doctor should have known the damgers by the twentieth century.

Full text here. http://www.la.utexas.edu/research/poltheory/ja mes/blaste/blaste.html

[Hugh Spencer]

During my time flying with the RAF almost every member of aircrew smoked. I didn't but smoking did relieve stress and calm the nerves and that is what most did immediately on landing.

[shaneystar2]

Many years ago we had a family doctor who ,when you went to his surgery had a fag on the go and a large glass of whisky on his desk.He was a a real character and a war hero . He lived to be well over ninety and was a brilliant doctor who served the community well for forty years. !
I had an aunt who smoked ten fags a day for donkeys years ..she died two years ago aged 101.

[fairkatrina]

Smoking is of course linked to cancer, DVT etc etc, but places like Italy along the Med have both the lowest cancer rates in Europe and the highest number of heavy smokers. Scientists believe this is because their general diet and lifestyle are much healthier than ours, which makes us more prone to develop cancer etc. The problem is not smoking alone, although of course it constitutes a large part of the problem.

And when tobacco was brought back from the new world it was actually eaten - and potatoes, which were brought back at the same time, were smoked!