Unholy smokeWith a cigarette in your hand you would be a dead man. Yes, by the time you would have finished reading this particular box, smoking would have claimed another six lives across the globe. According to the World Health Organisation (who) estimate, smoking killed a staggering three million people every year in the early 1990s. These and numerous other "smoking" facts can now be accessed at the WHO's Website at http://www.who.ch/programmes/psa/toh/Alert/apr96/index.html.



Tobacco on trial More than 40 states in America and a number of lung cancer victims in Britain have initiated legal action against tobacco companies. The main issue: who knew what and when. When did the tobacco companies discover that smoking could cause cancer? When did they learn that tobacco is addictive? The answers to these and several other vital questions are emerging slowly from all the documents that these tobacco companies have been forced to release as result of these proceedings. The key documents pertaining to the case brought by the US state of Minnesota can be accessed at http://www.mnbluecrosstobacco.com/toblit/trialnews/docs/qcview.html. The documents show that as early as 1959, researchers working for R J Reynolds Tobacco Company had discovered the various carcinogens in cigarette smoke.