10. Wait a Minute: Wasn’t Nicotine a Bad Thing?

Wait a Minute: Wasn’t Nicotine a Bad Thing? 10

When human activities may lead to morally unacceptable harm that is scientifically plausible but uncertain, actions shall be taken to avoid or diminish that harm.

— The Precautionary Principle as enshrined in the EU Commission’s directive 91/414, and defined by UNESCO in 2005.

The Precautionary Principle It’s 2016. We know cigarette smoking is bad for your health. We know it causes cancer. We also know that the tobacco companies deliberately deceived the American public about the use of tobacco for a very long time. They lied about the health effects of smoking on the smoker, and about the addictiveness of nicotine. They lied about the fact that cigarettes were intentionally designed to increase the nicotine delivered to the smoker, about the fact that “light” or “low tar” cigarettes are not less harmful than regular cigarettes and about the effects of secondhand smoke. The depth of the deception is...well, let’s just say it’s deep!

In November 2012, US District Court Judge Gladys Kessler set forth the text of the corrective statements that the tobacco companies were ordered to publish, to inform the public about the truth. The deadline for compliance was March 1, 2013, but the tobacco industry has yet to comply.

Just to be sure we grasp the scope of this issue, let’s review the details of the Order that Judge Kessler sent back to the courts for action then and the actual statements the defendants in United States of America v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., et al. were ordered to make known (tobacco-on-trial.com /wp-content/uploaded/2012/11/20121127-doj-5991-order-_34-remand.pdf; care2.com/causes/5-lies-the-tobacco-companies-legally-have-to-take -back.html; care2.com/causes/supreme-court-declines-case-big-tobacco -scores-big.html; npic.orst.edu/factsheets/archive/imidacloprid.html).

Here is the truth about the adverse health effects of smoking: • Smoking kills, on average, 1,200 Americans, every day. • More people die every year from smoking than from murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol, combined. • Smoking causes heart disease, emphysema, acute myeloid leukemia and cancer of the mouth, esophagus, larynx, lung, stomach, kidney, bladder and pancreas. • Smoking also causes reduced fertility, low birth weight in newborns and cancer of the cervix and uterus.

Here is the truth about the addictiveness of smoking and nicotine: • Smoking is highly addictive. Nicotine is the addictive drug in tobacco. • Cigarette companies intentionally designed cigarettes with enough nicotine to create and sustain addiction. • It’s not easy to quit. • When you smoke, the nicotine actually changes the brain—that’s why quitting is so hard.

The tobacco companies advertised “low tar” and “light” cigarettes as less harmful than regular cigarettes. They are not. Here’s the truth concerning that claim: • Many smokers switch to low tar and light cigarettes rather than quitting because they think low tar and light cigarettes are less harmful.

They are not.

• Low tar and filtered cigarette smokers inhale essentially the same amount of tar and nicotine as they would from regular cigarettes. • All cigarettes cause cancer, lung disease, heart attacks and premature death—lights, low tar, ultra lights and naturals. There is no safe cigarette.

The tobacco companies deliberately deceived the American public about designing cigarettes to enhance the delivery of nicotine. Here’s the truth: • Defendant tobacco companies intentionally designed cigarettes to make them more addictive. • Cigarette companies control the impact and delivery of nicotine in many ways, including designing filters and selecting cigarette paper to maximize the ingestion of nicotine, adding ammonia to make the cigarette taste less harsh and controlling the physical and chemical makeup of the tobacco blend. • When you smoke, the nicotine actually changes the brain—that’s why quitting is so hard.

Then there are the devastating effects of secondhand cigarette smoke. Here is the truth: • Secondhand smoke kills over 3,000 Americans each year. • Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer and coronary heart disease in adults who do not smoke. • Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections, ear problems, severe asthma and reduced lung function. • There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

We should be outraged. More than 20 million Americans have died since 1964 because of tobacco. Many of them (approximately 600,000) didn’t even smoke cigarettes! According to the American Cancer Society, tobacco is the most preventable cause of death in the US; it is responsible for 30 percent of all cancer deaths and 87 percent of all lung

cancer deaths. Yet the tobacco industry’s subterfuge goes unpunished. Interesting...

Let’s stay with this subject of nicotine for just a moment longer. Today’s thinking beekeepers, and bee-friendly gardeners, are becoming aware of a new nicotine issue: a new class of pesticides that arrived on the scene in 1994—neonicotinoid insecticides. These systemic pesticides differ from others in that they permeate the tissue of the entire plant, rather than being found only on the exterior surfaces. The toxin is found in the seed and the roots, the stems and buds, the leaves, the flowers, the fruit—all of it, every cell, throughout the whole plant, pollen and nectar included! Surely this spells trouble for honeybees.

The most prevalent use of systemic neonicotinoid pesticides is as a prophylactic seed treatment on corn, soybeans, canola and sunflower seeds. Oddly, the United States Department of Agriculture does not even include systemic pesticides used as a seed treatment when they gather data and statistics on pesticide use, despite the fact that seed treatments account for approximately 95% of the total use of these pesticides.

Some folks say that these chemicals are harmful. Some say that they are safer than the older classes of pesticides. Some point out that if we are using systemic pesticides, then we are spraying fewer pesticides on our fields, which pollute the soil, the air and the water, and isn’t that a good thing? Some people say that systemic neonicotinoid pesticides are the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder.

The chemical technology industry has a vested interest in controlling public perception of the safety of systemic pesticides, and they employ many resources—financial, marketing, and legal—in skewing that perception in their favor.

Don’t these questions, and this subterfuge, sound familiar? If you returned to the beginning of this chapter and replaced tobacco with systemic neonicotinoid pesticides, wouldn’t you find many frightening parallels between the two?