Smoking and Lung Diseases:
Emphysema, Tuberculosis, Etc.

Tobacco smoke contains large quantities of toxic chemicals. By 1836, it was already well-established "that thousands and tens of thousands die of diseases of the lungs generally brought on by tobacco smoking. . . . How is it possible to be otherwise? Tobacco is a poison. A man will die of an infusion of tobacco as of a shot through the head." —Samuel Green, New England Almanack and Farmer's Friend (1836).

Tobacco effects include "disturbances . . . on the bronchial surface of the lung" and the fact that "no smoker can ever be said . . . to be well."—"Effects of Tobacco," The Confederate States Medical & Surgical Journal (November 1864).

"The body needs food, clothing, sunshine, bathing, and drink, but none of these wants are so pressing as pure air. Other wants may be met by occasional supply, but air must be furnished every moment or we die."—Theodore F. Frech and Luther H. Higley, The Evils of Tobacco and Cigarettes (Butler, Indiana: The Higley Printing Co, 1916), p 31.

"The physician must recognize the fact that smoking is a universal affair . . . harmful . . . to normal people. . . . [changing them into injured category]."—Schwartz, Herbert F., M.D., "Smoking and Tuberculosis," 45 New York State Journal of Medicine (#14) 1539-1542 (15 July 1945).

"Virtually everyone in the United States is at some risk of harm from exposure to secondhand smoke. The reason is that nearly everyone is exposed to tobacco smoke, and there is no evidence of a threshold level of exposure below which the exposure is safe."—Ronald M. Davis, M.D., "Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke," 280 J Am Med Assn (#22) 1947-1949 (9 Dec 1998).

"Over time, inhaling [toxic] tobacco smoke (ETS)--a process often called "passive smoking"--can cause otherwise healthy adults to develop chronic respiratory symptoms," says the article, "Exposure To Environmental Tobacco Smoke Causes Respiratory Symptoms In Healthy Adults" (ScienceDaily, 22 November 2006). Here are examples:

1. Asthma
2. Bronchitis (Chronic)
3. Emphysema
4. Leukemia
5. Influenza
6. Acute NI Resp Disease
7. Pneumonia
8. Tuberculosis

1. Asthma

Tobacco "produces . . . bronchitis . . . asthma"—Meta Lander, The Tobacco Problem (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1882), p 150; and Prof. Bruce Fink, Tobacco (Cincinnati: The Abingdon Press, 1915), p 24.

"Tobacco asthma is well known."—John H. Kellogg, M.D., LL.D., F.A.C.S., Tobaccoism, or, How Tobacco Kills (Battle Creek, Michigan: The Modern Medicine Publishing Co, 1922), p 55.

See also the discussion, in French, of lung diseases including asthma, by Dr. Hippolyte A. Depierris, Physiologie Sociale: Le Tabac (Paris: Dentu, 1876), "Lésions de l'Appareil Respiratoire, pp 168 et seq."

Second-hand TTS is known to kill by triggering an asthma episode. (See also anti-poisoning precedents.)

2. Bronchitis (Chronic)

Pre-1944 data led to this conclusion that year: there are "three types of bronchitis resulting from tobacco smoke." Reference: Frank Leighton Wood, M.D., What You Should Know About Tobacco (Wichita, KS: The Wichita Publishing Co, 1944), pp 97-98.

"Cigarette smoking is the most important of the causes of chronic bronchitis . . . and increases the risk of dying," facts cited by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (DHEW), Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, PHS Pub 1103, p 31 (1964).

3. Emphysema

"Most emphysemics either smoke or have smoked for many years," p 24. "Statistics show overwhelmingly that cigarette smokers are ten times more likely to develop emphysema than those who do not smoke," p 22. Emphysema "progresses much more swiftly in those who continue to smoke," p 23. —Fred A. Obley, M.D., Emphysema: A Doctor's Advice for Patients and Their Families (Boston: Beacon Press, 1970).

"Doctors . . . know what [smoking] can do to [the] heart, lungs, and other organs. We wish we could get the chilling implications of this knowledge across to our patients. . . . the blunt fact remains that smoking is bad for you. . . . To stop smoking, you must simply stop smoking. . . . Quit cold and stick to your resolve. Whatever [addiction withdrawal symptoms you have will disappear. . . . If you cannot assume this personal responsibility with your own health at stake, at least think of your children and their health," Obley, supra, p 38.

"For the bulk of the population . . . the relative importance of cigarette smoking as a cause of chronic broncho-pulmonary disease is much greater than atmospheric pollution or occupational exposures," facts cited as long ago as 1964, by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (DHEW), Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, PHS Pub 1103, p 31 (1964).

Sample Laws Helping People To Not Smoke
Iowa Law Banning Cigarette Manufacture and Sales
Tennessee Law Banning Cigarette Sales
Michigan Law Bans Deleterious Cigarette Manufacture / Sales

"The vast majority of people who have emphysema smoked heavily for at least some portion of their lives. Clinical studies have clearly demonstrated that once a person has emphysema, cigarette smoking causes deterioration in his respiratory function tests. . . . one of the major problems in emphsysema lies in the irritation of the tiny bronchi and bronchioles. Inhaled tobacco smoke is a prime irritant to the mucous membranes of those airways. When tobacco smoke is inhaled, it travels along with the air and is breathed right to the alveoli and . . . also irritates these delicate membranes. Moreover, each inhalation of air contaminated with tobacco smoke provides that much less vital oxygen to the body. . . . I know several good chest specialists who refuse to treat emphysemics if they continue to smoke." Obley, supra, p 93.

"Men get emphysema about six times more often than women do. He may be in his late thirties or forties but usually he's over fifty. He has smoked for many years, if not for his whole adult life" [meaning that short portion of life until 50]. Obley, supra, p 30.

"Emphysema and its associated diseases lower your resistance to other diseases, so you doctor will want to be especially alert. . . . He will want to know if you smoke and if your husband or wife smokes. No need to tell you what he would probably say about that!" Obley, supra, p 36.

In fact, "doctors would prefer to apply . . . prevention to eliminate or at least sharply reduce the incidence of emphysema." Obley, supra, p 37. The best prevention is an Iowa-type law, a comprehensive cigarette manufacture and sales ban.

"Despite the various claims and counterclaims, the flak from tobacco companies and their ad men, the blunt fact remains that smoking is bad for you." Obley, supra, p 38.

"Every patient with emphysema should quit smoking immediately, absolutely, and forever! There are no exceptions!." Obley, supra, p 90. And, "everyone should quit smoking, Obley, supra, p 91. "To do that, you must take action. Don't ignore the realities that you secretly are aware of, even if you don't want to admit them. . . . The diagnosis of far-advanced emphysema is not difficult at all. Most doctors can diagnose it ast a glance." Obley, supra, p 30.

See also the discussion, in French, of lung diseases including emphysema, by Dr. Hippolyte A. Depierris, Physiologie Sociale: Le Tabac (Paris: Dentu, 1876), "Lésions de l'Appareil Respiratoire."

You Must Take Action
Don't Rely on Government To Protect You: Why?
Due to Bribery And Corruption Among Officials

"Assuming you have quit smoking, you should also stay out of rooms where others are smoking. Don't hesitate to ask someone to put out his cigarette or not to smoke in your presence. Tell him cigarette smoke seriously affects your lungs. Not only will he refrain from smoking near you, but you might also do him a favor by getting him to start thinking."—Obley, supra, p 103.

Better Approaches Institutionalizing 'No-Smoking'
As This 'Asking' Approach Leaves
Ambient Smoke Lingering In The Air,
Leaves Many People (Children, Infants) Unprotected
And Often Fails Due To Smokers' Brain Damage
Iowa Law Banning Cigarette Manufacture and Sales
The Right to Fresh and Pure Air
Sample Court Order Banning Others' Smoking

Cigarettes contain toxic chemicals. Deaths are "natural and probable consequences." Pursuant to standard lawbook definitions, nonsmokers' involuntary foreseeable deaths constitute murder. The high number of deaths is a "holocaust" according to the Royal Society of Physicians' 1971 criteria, and is part of the total genocide problem.

For example, see D J Hendrick, "Smoking, cadmium, and emphysema," 59 Thorax 184-185 (2004).

4. Leukemia
"Regular long-term ETS exposure may be a risk factor for chronic lymphocytic leukemia," say Khaled Kasim; Patrick Levallois, Belkacem Abdous, Pierre Auger, and Kenneth C. Johnson, "Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Risk of Adult Leukemia," 16 Epidemiology (#5) 672-680 (September 2005). Dr. Patrick Levallois told Reuters Health, "we have found an excess risk of leukemia in those who were the most exposed to environmental tobacco smoke."

See also David Moyer, M.D., "The Tobacco Reference Guide: Chapter 8 Other Cancers: Leukemia and Childhood Cancers" (2000). (Background).

5. Influenza

For background, see
  • John M. Barry, The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (New York: Penguin Viking, 2004);

  • Prof. Raymond Pearl, "Influenza Studies. I. On Certain General Statistical Aspects of the 1918 Epidemic in American Cities," Public Health Reports 1743-1783 (Washington DC: Govt Printing Office, 8 Aug 1919). Reprint No. 548; and

  • Prof. Raymond Pearl, "Influenza Studies. II. Further Data on the Correlation of Explosiveness of Outbreak of the 1918 Epidemic. III. On the Correlation of Destructiveness of the 1918 Epidemic. IV. On the Correlation Between Explosiveness and Total Destructiveness of the Epidemic Mortality," Public Health Reports 273-298 (Washington DC: Govt Printing Office, 18 Feb 1921). Reprint No. 642.

    • Prof. Raymond Pearl was the researcher who attempted to call public attention to the higher death rate from tobacco use, and was censored in the 1930's.













    6. Acute Non-Influenzal Respiratory Disease

    Tobacco smoke contains large quantities of toxic chemicals. By 1836, it was already well-established "that thousands and tens of thousands die of diseases of the lungs generally brought on by tobacco smoking. . . . How is it possible to be otherwise? Tobacco is a poison. A man will die of an infusion of tobacco as of a shot through the head." —Samuel Green, New England Almanack and Farmer's Friend (1836).

    Examples were observed in World War I. Doctors saw "that in this war, as in wars of the past, many soldiers prove inefficient because they become unduly breathless on the exertion that military service entails. The same individuals often complain of precordial pain, palpitation, giddiness, and exhaustion. . . . the smoking of a single cigarette by an habitual smoker usually raises the pulse rate and blood pressure perceptibly. . . . the smoking of a few cigarettes can render healthy men more breathless on exertion, and manifestly does so in a large proportion of these cases." The reference to "a few cigarettes" is this: "Each subject smoked either four or five cigarettes during a period of forty minutes. . . . effects appeared within five minutes; with the first cigarette they almost reached the maximum [adverse effect], and this [adverse effect] was maintained throughout the smoking period." —John Parkinson and Hilmar Koefod, 92 Medical Record (#12) 517 (22 Sep 1917).

    "In this study, smokers, particularly heavy cigarette smokers, had significantly more upper and lower respiratory disease of both outpatient and hospital types than nonsmokers," with "little doubt that cigarette smoking so undermined host defenses that even rigorously conditioned, healthy young smokers did not escape increased acute respiratory illness." "Cigarette smoking among college students was linked with more frequent respiratory morbidity during the 1968-1969 epidemic of A2/Hong Kong influenza." —"Cigarette Smoking and Acute Non-Influenzal Respiratory Disease in Military Cadets," 93 Am J Epidemiology (#6) 457-462 (1971) (a study of The Corps of Cadets, at The Citadel, South Carolina).

    ""The association between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cigarette smoking has been documented by numerous studies," p 755. "This study demonstrates a definite association between cigarette smoking and pathologic changes in the peripheral airways of young cigarette smokers," p 758.—Dennis E. Niewoehner, M.D., J. Kleinerman, M.D., and D. B. Rice, "Pathologic Changes in the Peripheral Airways of Young Cigarette Smokers," 291 New England J Medicine (#15) 755-758 (10 Oct 1974).

    "The most characteristic lesion in the peripeheral airways of the young cigarette smokers was respiratory bronchiolitis. This histologic feature was present in all . . the smokers . . . was frequently associated with edema, fibrosis, and epithelial hyperplasia in the adjacent bronchiolar and alveolar walls. . . . The brown-pigmented macrophages observed in the repsiratory bronchiole are similar to those obtained by bronchopulmonary lavage in young cigarette smokers. . . . Cytochemical studies by Roque and Pickren indicate decreased activity of cerain enzymes in the same cells. . . . fiber-like cytoplasmic inclusions observed with the electron microscope may be aluminum silicate particles originating in tobacco smoke. . . . Lung macrophages have been implicated in the pathenogenesis of emphysema."—Niewoehner, et al, supra, p 756.

    "A lesion very similar to the respiratory bronchiolitis observed in this study of human lungs can be produced in some hamsters by chronic exposure to nitrogen dioxide. . . . These changes are very similar to those reported by Seely and her associates in teenage smokers. . . . There are small but stistically significant increases in denuded epithelium and mural inflammatory cells in the membranous bronchioles of the smokers." "The mean age . . . was 25.7 ± 1.2 years for the smoking group . . ." autopsies.—Niewoehner, et al, supra, p 755.

    Cigarettes contain toxic chemicals. Deaths are "natural and probable consequences." Pursuant to standard lawbook definitions, both smokers and nonsmokers' involuntary foreseeable deaths constitute murder. The high number of deaths is a "holocaust" according to the Royal Society of Physicians' 1971 criteria, and is part of the total genocide problem.

    "'Every regular cigarette smoker is injured . . . Cigarette smoking kills some, makes others lung cripples, gives still others far more than their share of illness and loss of work days. Cigarette smoking is not a gamble; all regular cigarette smokers studied at autopsy show the effects.'" (Referenced, The FTC Report 1968, cited in A. A. White (Law Prof, Univ of Houston), "Strict Liability of Cigarette Manufacturers and assumption of Risk," 29 Louisiana Law Review (#4) 589-625, at 607 n 85 (June 1969).

    7. Pneumonia

    "A tobacco crippled heart cannot stand the extra strain that is placed upon it during any disease accompanied by high temperature and high blood pressure. Pneumonia frequently weeds out those who possess some organic disease, and its field of operation is chiefly confined to men whose hearts are weakened by the excessive use of tobacco."—Henry Ford, The Case Against the Little White Slaver (Detroit: Henry Ford, 1914, revised 1916), p 17 (quoting Dr. Daniel H. Kress).

    Pneumonia killed 63,000 Americans in 2000.

    8. Tuberculosis

    Tobacco smoke contains large quantities of toxic chemicals. By 1836, it was already well-established "that thousands and tens of thousands die of diseases of the lungs generally brought on by tobacco smoking. . . . How is it possible to be otherwise? Tobacco is a poison. A man will die of an infusion of tobacco as of a shot through the head." —Samuel Green, New England Almanack and Farmer's Friend (1836).

    "Seven-tenths of those who become users of these deadly coffin-nails fall victims to tuberculosis or consumption."—Luther H. Higley, et al., The Evils of Tobacco and Cigarettes (Butler, Indiana: The Higley Printing Co, 1916), p 61.

    "The physician must recognize the fact that smoking is a universal affair . . . harmful . . . to normal people. . . . [causing conditions they didn't have before]." Schwartz, Herbert F., M.D., "Smoking and Tuberculosis," 45 New York State Journal of Medicine (#14) 1539-1542 (15 July 1945).

    "Smoking . . . is a predisposing cause of tuberculosis of the lungs. Long ago, when cigarette smoking . . . was first begun in this country, and before any experimental or clinical research work concerning tobacco toxicity had been done, physicians realized that cigarettes predisposed to infection of the lungs by tuberculosis and they were commonly called 'coffin nails.' Now we know how and why."—Frank L. Wood, M.D., What You Should Know About Tobacco (Wichita, KS: The Wichita Publishing Co, 1944), p 100. Wood cited references:

    Dr. Wood explained that "anything that brings about an inflammatory condition of the bronchial mucous membrane predisposes to the implantation of the germs of tuberculosis there. These germs are frequently inhaled in the air we breathe and if our bronchial membranes are normal and unbroken, the seeds thus sown are brushed away by the hairlike cilia . . . which line the tubes. If, however, the membranes are roughened or abraded as a result of inflammation or coughing, these seeds may find a suitable soil and begin to develop." Wood, supra, p 100.

    "Smoking also predisposes to tuberculosis by causing poor nutrition and loss of weight. Smoking lessens the appetite for food through its effects upon the adrenal glands, thus causing stored-up sugar to be released into the ciruclation. . . . most confirmed smokers begin to gain weight as soon as they stop smoking." Wood, supra, p 101. Additionally, "smoking predisposes to tuberculosis and hinders its cure . . . through interference with the blood supply to the lung tissue." Wood, supra, p 102.

    "It has long been recognized among physicians that there is a very definite relationship between tobacco and tuberculosis. Not only do the records show the users of tobacco to be more susceptible to the tubercular germ, but their recovery depends in large measure upon abstinence from the weed. All respiratory diseases are more common among tobacco users than among abstainers."—Daniel H. Kress, M.D., The Cigarette As A Physician Sees It (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Pub Ass'n, 1931), p 26.

    In World War I, 70% of the discharges from the U.S. Army for tuberculosis were of smokers.—Major Gerald B. Webb, "The Effect of the Inhalation of Cigarette Smoke on the Lungs," 2 Am Rev Tub (#1) 25-27 (March 1918).

    Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) reported that he "once lost a young man of 17 years of age, of a pulmonary consumption, whose disorder was brought on by the intemperate use of cigars."—Essays (Philadelphia: T. & W. Bradford, 1798), p 263.

    Due to tobacco smoke containing large quantities of toxic chemicals, smoking leads to tuberculosis. A 1961 medical journal article said that "the present investigation has confirmed the findings of Lowe (1956) that tuberculosis patients smoke more heavily than controls . . . . smoking was found to be linked . . . ."—K. E. Brown and A. H. Campbell, "Tobacco, Alcohol, and Tuberculosis," 55 British Journal of Diseases of the Chest 150-158 (1961).

    Data linking smoking and tuberculosis is cited by Susan Wagner, Cigarette Country: Tobacco in American History and Politics (New York: Praeger, 1971): a century ago, it was being noted that "'coffin nails' caused . . . many grave maladies. Tuberculosis and pneumonia were widely mentioned," p 43.

    Linkage between second hand smoke and tuberculosis was reported by Dr. Herbert H. Tidswell, The Tobacco Habit: Its History and Pathology (London: J. & A. Churchill, 1912), pp 75-76.

    Dr. Reuben D. Mussey, Health: Its Friends and Its Foes (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1862), p 123, cited an 1830's example.

    And see this 1927 material: "tobacco is a potent factor in causing pulmonary tuberculosis in men." A "paper" on this was "read by the author by request before the National Association of Life Underwriters, at its meeting in New York City (1918)." — John H. Kellogg, M.D., Tobaccoism, or How Tobacco Kills (1922), p 51.

    "Dr. Webb, a famous lung specialist, of Colorado Springs, observed in the examination of thousands of soldiers at the various camps during the war [World War I], that cigarette smoking is an active cause of chrnoic bronchitis. He reported the finding of of 'ronchi' in the lungs of nearly all smokers. Ronchi mean irritation, and irritation means low resistance, an open door to tuberculosis." Kellogg, supra, p 55.

    "'The increase of tuberculosis in man runs parallel with the increase of the consumption of tobacco. . . . The use of tobacco has a predisposing influence for the implantation of tuberculosis.'" Kellogg, supra, p 53 (quoting from his 1918 paper).

    "Dr. Wright of St. Mary's Hospital, London, found that nicotine greatly lowers the tuberculo-opsonic index . . . of . . . the resistance of the body to the tubercle bacillus. In one case reported by Wright, that of a cigarette smoker, the index was reduced to zero. The patient died three weeks later." Kellogg, supra, p 55.

    Such 1920's analyses are confirmed by modern findings. Here is an example, correlating evidence concerning "immune deficiency diseases" and "clinical and laboratory evidence that smoking increases susceptibility to bacterial and viral infections." Johnson-Early, et al, Journal of the American Medical Association (#19) 2179 (14 Nov 1980).

    See also C. Kolappan and P. G. Gopi, "Tobacco smoking and pulmonary tuberculosis," 57 Thorax (#11) 964-966 (Nov 2002): "There is a positive association between tobacco smoking and pulmonary (bacillary) tuberculosis (OR 2.5). The association also shows a strong dose-response relationship.")

    Do not be confused by disinformation types who might tell you that tuberculosis is really correlated with alcoholism, with innuendo that you should ignore the data linking tobacco's toxic chemicals with tuberculosis. Doctors are well aware of the joint tobacco-alcohol connection with tuberculosis. They already know "the well-established assocation between smoking and drinking." — Joseph Stokes III, M.D., 308 New England Journal of Medicine (#7) 393 (17 Feb 1983). The smoking - alcoholism link is well-established; 90% of alcoholics are smokers.

    For example, "heavy drinkers are likely to be heavy smokers," referencing Cartwright, et al., 2 Lancet 1081 (1956) —K. E. Brown and A. H. Campbell, "Tobacco, Alcohol, and Tuberculosis," 55 British Journal of Diseases of the Chest 150-158 (1961), p 150.

    They said that "the present investigation has confirmed the findings of Lowe (1956) that tuberculosis patients smoke more heavily than controls . . . . smoking was found to be linked with alcohol consumption, confirming the observations of Cartwright, et al (1959) . . . . all levels of alcohol consumption were associated with an altered incidence of tuberculosis." —Brown and Campbell, supra, p 156. They saw that "smoking and drinking . . . tend to be linked together," p 153.

    Doctors have centuries of experience analyzing data on the causation process and who gets various conditions. Do not be confused by pushers' disinformation to the contrary, trying to confuse you.

    Former Michigan Governor John Engler and staff were paper-supportive of action to enforce Michigan's 1909 cigarette ban law, issuing five pertinent memoranda.
    Exec Order 1992-3 Law Support Letter # 1 Anti-Cigarette Smuggling Finding Law Support Letter # 2 Governor's Overview

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