Back in 1965, I was only three years old, so I didn’t notice the appearance of warnings on the Lucky Strike cigarette packages my dad kept handy in his shirt pocket. The warnings — required by the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 — stated, in rather small print, “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health.” My dad didn’t seem to notice them either.
Two years later, I still hadn’t learned to read and wasn’t really keeping up on politics yet, so I missed hearing about the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report to Congress suggesting that the inconclusive “May Be Hazardous” warning could really be a bit more definite:
“Warning: Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Health and May Cause Death from Cancer and Other Diseases.”
But the print was still pretty small, and as I recall, when my friend Chuck and I tried smoking some of the cigarettes he’d borrowed from his mom’s purse, out in the vacant lot across the street, we paid absolutely no attention the warning.
The government did their best to try and protect us, but as the old proverb states, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him read warning labels. The CDC estimates that 480,000 people died from smoking-related illnesses in 2017. That’s a pretty big number, considering they’d all been warned.
A pretty big number, compared to, say, the number of people who die in traffic accidents. The National Safety Council estimates the number of traffic deaths in 2017 at about 40,100. The sad part about that number, however, is that a large percentage of the people who died were teenagers or young adults.
We note, meanwhile, that the percentage of young adults who smoke cigarettes has reached an all-time low of 10 percent.
Maybe the warning labels on cigarettes are actually starting to do the job?
So how about it, FTC? Warning labels on cars. Big, easy to read warnings. That’s my recommendation to the people who make these kinds of rules.
But there’s another serious health risk that really ought to be addressed.
A recent Johns Hopkins study claims more than 250,000 people in the US die every year from medical errors. Other reports claim the numbers to be as high as 440,000 — which would make hospitals the most dangerous places in the country.
So I am making a recommendation, which would not be too expensive and might save a lot of lives. The following warning should be required at the entrance to hospitals:
People’s lives are at stake. It’s the least the government can do to try and keep us safe.
Yes, we know people will still drive cars and visit hospitals. But at least they will have been warned.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.