NO SMOKING

(A Doomsday Book for the 21st Century)

by William Joseph Bailey

In the year 1950, there were only 18,318 deaths from Cancer in the UK. The population of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain was approximately 50 million people, around about 25 million
smokers, if my mathematics is correct (50 % of 50 = 25).

The first electric cigarette was invented in the USA by Herbert A. Gilbert in 1963, but the idea
proved unpopular to the general public and production was halted.

1965 saw the banning of cigarette advertisements on television. Cigar and rolling tobacco
advertisements were not illegal until 1991, soon after the final Hamlet Cigar TV commercial.

in the early 1970's cigarette Government health warnings were first introduced, printed on one
side of every packet of cigarettes and tobacco.

In 1972, the average price for a packet of 20 cigarettes was approximately 25 pence, (although to
be fair, the average living wage was only £32).

By 1974, 45% of Britons still smoked cigarettes, 52% of men and 41% of women, approximately
23 million residents of the United Kingdom.

In 1975, there were approximately 111,000 deaths from Cancer in Britain. Although there were
only 5% less smokers since 1950, about 23,750,000, there were over 500% more people dying of
Cancer.

It was still socially acceptable for patients and staff, including cleaners, porters, ambulance
drivers, nurses and doctors, to smoke in hospital wards, waiting rooms, ambulances, doctors
surgeries and even operating theatres in the year 1976. Many hospital patients even kept
ashtrays on their bedside cabinet, in case they wanted to smoke in bed. In 1977, the
government introduced new legislation limiting smoking in hospitals to the waiting rooms.

In 1978 the average price for a packet of 20 cigarettes was approximately 55 pence, rising to 70
pence in the year 1980. Larger health warnings were introduced in 1981, "CIGARETTES
SERIOUSLY DAMAGES YOUR HEALTH", printed in big black letters on a white background on the
side of every packet of tobacco and cigarettes.

By the way, in the United States of America, which is in fact a rather larger continent than
Britain, Cancer deaths have risen from 200,000 in 1950 to 600,000 in the year 2010, yet only
15% of the population still smoke tobacco, approximately 36.5 million people. In the 1950's over
45% of the population smoked cigarettes, a decline in smoking of 66%, but a rise in cancer of
200%
By 1982, the proportion of non-smoking cancer patients who had never smoked a fag was 43% in
the United Kingdom, (source N.H.S. Information Centre). 44% of people in the UK still smoked
cigarettes and many smokers were quiting the habit.

In 1986, Cigarette advertisements were banned from cinemas in the UK.

After the Big Fire inside Londons Kings Cross Tube station in 1987, tobacco advertisements and
smoking on underground trains became illegal. The fire was claimed to have been started by
somebodies cigarette butt. But as every smoker already knows, a cigarette usually goes out
within a minute or two, and isn't Kings Cross station made out of concrete? How could one
single cigarette butt start a fire on a piece of cement? The fire was probably caused by an
electical fault, more likely than a cigarette, which thousands of people would have trampled
over within a second or two, don't you think?

Cigarettes cost £1.65 for a packet of 20 in Britain in the year 1990, the tax on a packet of fags
was approximatly £1.20. By the year 2000 AD, the price of a packet of cigarettes had risen to
about £4, (£3.08 of the cost given to the tax-man, hopefully to pay for the National Health
Service, I wish). Only 20% of people living in the United Kingdom still smoked cigarettes,
approximately 12 million smokers.

2003 and cigarettes now have to carry a 30% written health warning on the front of every packet
of smokes, "CIGARETTES CAUSE FATAL CANCER", "CIGARETTES KILL YOU.", etc etc, or words to
that effect. A Chinese pharmacist, Hon Lik, invented the modern electronic cigarette (E-Cig) in
the same year, they were first released in China in 2004.

In the year 2005 the UK government introduced new tobacco regulations, making it illegal to
advertise any cigarette product or tobacco at a sporting event, such as motor racing, the Olympic
Games, cricket, tennis, darts or football matches.

In June 2006, smoking in any public establishment was banned in Quebec and Ontario in
Canada. The same laws were introduced to Queensland, Australia in July, and in December the
government enforced the law nationwide.

Electronic cigarettes (E-cigs) first arrived onto the European and UK markets in 2006, they were
not sold in America until 2007.

According to The Office For National Statistics, there were 155,500 deaths from cancer in Britain
in the year 2006 and 53% of the population had never smoked a cigarette. Compare that to the
1950s, 18,318 deaths from cancer. 137,180 more cases of cancer than 50 years ago, that is an
increase of 650%, and yet the number of smokers has fallen from 50% to 19% of the Uk
population.

Cigarettes cost about £5 for a packet of 20 in 2007. Remember, by this time wages had
increased a hell of a lot over the years, £200 to £300 per week for the average common worker
(roughly) in the UK. In the same year the UK government introduced tough new tobacco
legislation, making it illegal to smoke on any public transport, from buses and trains to
aeroplanes and taxi cabs. Smoking in pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels, theatres, cinemas, art
galleries, museums, cafes, casinos, shops, holiday villas and resorts, or any other public places,
was also banned. By the morning of the very next day, "No Smoking" signs were displayed on
every window of every office in Britain, on the front of every school gate and university , on the
walls of every hall of every block of council flats, and on the doors of every pub. Also in 2007, the
age of consent for smoking was raised from 16 to 18. At least 10,000 pubs closed in one year, an
average of 25 per week. Approximately 50,000 pubs in Britain have closed in the past 10 years
alone.

In the year 2008, the Govenment passed a law making it compulsory to display pictorial health
warnings on every packet of cigarettes and tobacco, (usually some poor guy with a big red
tumour on his neck, a cancer infected lung or a corpse in a mortuary), as well as the standard
text messages, such as "SMOKING CAUSES PHOETAL INJURY AND PREMATURE BIRTH",
"CIGARETTES CAUSE CANCER, "SMOKING KILLS.". These photographic warnings usually covered
about 25% of the cigarette carton or tobacco pouch and the text covered another 20%.

Australia banned the use of any electronic cigarette that contains nicotine in 2009.

2010 saw the introduction of more government legislation, making it illegal to display tobacco
products in the cigarette kiosks of shops, super-stores and newsagents. The size of pictorial
health warnings was also increased to about 40% of the cigarette carton or tobacco pouch.
Many more people had quit smoking by this time and only 17% of Britons still smoked cigarettes,
approximately 7.2 million smokers. (Official statistics vary from 17% to 19% depending on
available data).

A few councils in Britain have even gone so far as to ban cigarette smoking in their town centres,
with some smokers having to pay an £80 on the spot fine for dropping a fag butt.

Cigarette vending machines were banned from pubs, clubs, restaurants and every other public
establishment in Britain in 2011. Government statistics showed that 11% of children who
regularly smoke were buying their cigarettes from vending machines. Where did the other 89%
get their cigarettes? Probably from their Daddys' jacket pocket, Mummys' hand-bag or the back
pocket of your Big Brothers torn blue denim jeans.

Also in the year 2011, smoking was banned from Central Park in New York City in the USA, which
is probably one of the most polluted cities in the whole world, with millions of cars pumping out
carbon monoxide into the atmosphere, every second of every day and night.

By 2012 the use of E-cigarettes was about 70,000 vapers in the United Kingdom, rising to 2.5
million in the year 2015.

Cancer Research UK statistics show that in 2014 only 19% of cancers were linked in any way to
smoking, by now only 19% of the British population still smoked tobacco. Official statistics vary
slightly, yet there were 356,000 new cases of cancer and 163,444 deaths, approximately 32,690
smokers and 130,000 non-smokers. Only 2 out of 5 cancers were preventable and only 1 in 5
cases of the disease attributed to cigarettes. Only 18% of secondary school children in Britain
had ever smoked a cigarette.

In the year 2015 there are 2.5 million people living with cancer in the UK, a rise of half a million
in 5 years, the population of Great Britain at this time is approximately 65 million. 26% of the
population has one form of cancer or another.

In 2016, there were 175,000 fatalities from Cancer, an increase of 64,000 in 41 years, since 1975
when there were only 111,000 deaths from the disease in the United Kingdom, (175000 -
111,000 = 64,000). Yet only 17% of the population of Britain still smoke cigarettes, compared to
50% in the 1950's, when cancer deaths were only 18,318. Approximately 15% of the UK are ex-
smokers.

We are now living in the year 2017 and the UK Government is enforcing even stronger tobacco
regulations. Packets of cigarettes and tobacco must now show a 75 per cent pictorial health
warning and have to be olive green in colour, (John Player Army, Benson and Hedges Super
Comandos, Dunhill Camouflage?), which makes the job of the tobacco staff in the supermarket,
off-licence and newsagents, almost impossible to tell one brand of cigarettes from another,
especially when the ciggies have to be hidden behind a shutter in the kiosk, goodbye JPS Black.
Cigarettes can now only be sold in packets of 20 and cost between £8 and £10, no doubt rising to
£15 after the upcoming Budget. Selling 10 cigarettes, or 15 or 17, is illegal. Therefore poor
people, who cannot afford to pay for 20 cigarettes a day, are being persecuted because they
simply do not have the cash to buy a packet of 20, so they have to give up smoking for one day
so that they can afford to buy their fags. Some light smokers only smoke 10 cigarettes a day, I
smoke about 40 roll-ups. Hand-rolling tobacco can now only be sold in 30 gram or 50 gram
packets and the price has increased from £8 for a 25 gram to £11 for a 30 gram pouch. 25 gram,
12.5 gram, half an ounce or smaller, are now illegal. The price of cigarettes and tobacco has
doubled in 10 years, a price rise of 100%. Sounds exactly like a George Orwell novel, doesn't it?

So again, poor people who used to buy a small pouch of tobacco to smoke on their 5 minute
break from work, to make their pitiful dull lives bearable for a few seconds of warm soft grey
smoke, and some very poor folk, like the thousands of homeless people who sleep on the streets
of London every night of the year in cardboard boxes and wrapped in filthy thin blankets stinking
of piss and beer in the bleakest of freezing-cold winters, which they had begged off some stupid
rich tourist or kind-hearted people who they are reduced to begging upon, (often I might say, to
buy a can of Tenants Super-Strong beer), who could only afford a tiny packet of tobacco to warm
their lungs on a freezin', chilly winters night, are now reduced, as many beggers have been doing
for so many years, to smoking the occasional cigarette butt that they find trampled on the street
pavement, like gold dust to a Tramp these days. Believe me, when you have no money at all, the
one thing you really crave for is a cigarette, above food and alcohol, and if I am to be truly honest
with myself, I must admit, If you are homeless and living on the street for any length of time, in
any town or city of Britain, or the rest of the world for that matter, a Big Can of Tenants Extra
Strong Lager will hopefully numb your senses to the icy winter wind and at least knock you
unconscious for another day or two, so that you can sleep and dream without facing the harsh
cold world around you. How are the poor people supposed to enjoy their lives if they cannot
even afford the simplest pleasure of a cigarette?

Another law was passed in 2016 making it illegal to smoke in a car with a passenger who is under
the age of 18, is a 17 year old really a child? At 16 you are old enough to have sex and get
married, luckily whether you are straight or gay these days in Britain, but you are not old enough
to read a pornographic magazine or fuck on your web-cam until you are 18. You are old enough
to ride a 50cc motorbike when you are 16, far more dangerous than smoking a cigarette, don't
you think? (Mind you, Bikers can't really light a cigarette when they are riding a motorcycle, can
they?, unless you are Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones, the wind would blow it out, wouldn't
it?), and you are old enough to drive a car when you are 17, but you are not old enough to
smoke cigarettes, buy alcohol or sit in a smokers car until you are 18 years old.

Actually vaping E-cigarettes has also now been banned in many pubs, clubs and restaurants in
the United Kingdom, "Nah, nah, nah, nah nah!". Are you aware of the fact that when you smoke
an Electronic cigarette, you are not smoking water vapour, as the advertisements suggest. The E-
Liquid in your vapes contains propylen, glyco, flavourings, glycerine and nicotine, (unless you live
in Australia, where nicotine E-cigarettes are illegal). Are all these chemicals really safe? Tobacco
is a plant that grows naturally in the planet Earth, do you honestly believe that E-cigs are better
for your health than the leaves from a herb?

Although childhood cancer is still quite rare, approximately 1600 new diagnoses per annum in
the 21st century, the figures have risen by 29% since the 1970's. How many 5 year old children
do you know who smoke cigarettes?

In 1950 at least 50% of the population of the UK were smokers, 25 million people, and yet there
were only 18,318 deaths from cancer. In 2016 only 17% of Britons smoked cigarettes, and there
were 175,000 cancer deaths. I read in a nursing article recently on the internet that 4 out of 5
cancer patients had never smoked a cigarette. That is an increase in cancer of just over 850% in
just 66 years, (18318 x 9.5 = 174,021). Coincidentally, ever since most of the general public have
been able to afford to drive petrol-driven cars, which pump out carbon monoxide into the
atsmosphere of every town and city in the world every second of every day and night. Yet there
has been a decrease in smokers of 66%.

If you attach a hose to the exhaust pipe of your car and put the other end through a slightly
open window, you will be dead within half an hour of turning the ignition key. If you smoke
tobacco for 50 years, you will probably end up with a bit of a cough. Tobacco is a herb that
grows naturally on planet Earth, petrol is a thick brown greasy oil that you burn in the engine of
your car. If smoking is decreasing and cancer is increasing, then how can cigarettes and tobacco
be to blame for cancer? 4 out of 5 cancer patients are non-smokers, 80% of cases.
So, what is Cancer? Cancer occurs when the process of cell regeneration breaks down, normally
the body creates new cells to replace old or damaged ones. Cancer Research UK states that
"Cancer is when abnormal cells divide in an uncontrolled way, some cancers spread to other
tissues in the body". According to Cancer Research UK, 1 in 2 people will get one form of cancer
or another in their life-time and 50% of cancers are diagnosed in people over the age of 70
years. People are living much longer lives than they did 50 years ago, so of course, as you get
older your cells will get older too and eventually the body will deteriorate, but that is just life. A
recent GP's survey stated that only 40% of cancers were related to diet, obesity, lack of exercise
or physical activity, alcohol or smoking (isn't it always). 83% of Britons are non-smokers and only
17% smoke cigarettes, yet according to research, 50% of the population will develop cancer.
Tough luck, non-smokers.

Actually, I have been a post-man for nearly 20 years. Two friends of mine who worked alongside
me at the Post Office, that I am aware of, have died from cancer, Ryan and Steve , both of them
were non-smokers. Steve was a keep-fit fanatic and a physiotherapist and Ryan was a semi-
proffesional footballer, his photograph was on the sports page of the local newspaper more than
once. Both of them were posting letters for a living in the neighbourhood, walking up and down
stairs. Actually I think that it was the chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment that killed
them, worse than the disease. Do you honestly believe that being radio-active is going to make
you feel better? You lose your hair, you vomit into the toilet bowl, you lose your appetite and
get diohrea, or is it the treatment that kills you? Ryan was even operated on by surgeons, they
cut out bits of his liver, kidneys, intestines and several other cancerous organs. He died in
Isabella Hospice in Welwyn Garden City about a year later.

Strangely enough, although smoking cigarettes is frowned upon in the USA, the sale and
possession of Marijuana, for medical and recreational purposes, has been legalised in the States
of Alaska, California, Colerado, Oregan, Massachuchettes, Maine, Nevada and Washington State,
although Washington DC (District of Columbia) has only legalised personal use of Cannabis and
not its commercial sale. There are even medical dispensaries that give marijuana on prescription
in some States of America. Marijuana has been used as a medicine for some years now, not as a
cure, but to help combat the symptons of many diseases, such as treating nausea and vomiting
in the case of AIDS, (Acquired Immune Deficiancy), HIV, the easing of joint pain in arthritis
sufferers, the shaking associated with Parkinsons Disease, Turette Syndrome, stress disorder
problems, epilepsy, lupos (an auto-immune disorder), it lowers the pressure in the eyes of
people with glaucoma and has been used in the treatment of Alzheimers, to mention just a few
of the herbs medicinal uses.

Nicotine also has several beneficial effects, stimulating the brain to increase alertness, creativity,
memory and motor skills. It is known to relax the body, ease anxiety and stress, and has possible
medical benefits in the treatment of Schizophrenia and other neurological disorders.

THE END
 (for now)