Reading Bowl 1

Debate Over Cigarette Smoking

In 1964, the surgeon general of the United States issued an important report. This report suggested that cigarette smoking caused cancer. Since then, there have been protests against smoking across the United States and elsewhere.
The antismoking movement has been around a lot longer than the surgeon general’s report. Centuries before the United States even existed, people were speaking out against tobacco.
Back in the fifteenth century, one of Columbus’ sailors was sent to jail for smoking tobacco. One Russian ruler had smokers whipped. A Chinese emperor said that people caught bringing tobacco into China would have their head chopped off. King James I of England called smoking the “precious stink.” He kept raising taxes on tobacco. He hoped the high price would prevent people from purchasing it.
Today, taxes add over four dollars to the price of each package of cigarettes sold in Great Britain. Even so, about 30 percent of people over the age of 15 in Great Britain smoke. A recent survey estimates that the number of smokers in China is about 300 million. In the United States, close to 46 million people still smoke.

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