Veteran paparazzo Joseph Recinos, 24, lights up a cigarette outside Delta Airlines terminal after receiving a tip about a celebrity arrival at Los Angeles International Airport, September 21, 2010. (Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times/MCT)
Veteran paparazzo Joseph Recinos, 24, lights up a cigarette outside Delta Airlines terminal after receiving a tip about a celebrity arrival at Los Angeles International Airport, September 21, 2010. (Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

By SAM HOLLEMAN

The year was 1964.  Ford just introduced the Mustang, The Beatles just released their second album and Mary Poppins just hit theaters.  But one little known fact is that in this same year, the Surgeon General declared that cigarettes cause lung cancer.

Ever since then, America’s children have been drenched in anti-smoking buttons and other various paraphernalia: anti-smoking presentations in school auditoriums, and more anti-smoking television advertisements than bad Vin Diesel movies.  But with all of this focus on cigarettes, one question is left unanswered: who decided that smoking was going to be the Big Mac of the medical world?

Some might find their socks knocked off when they hear this information but smoking is not the only thing that causes cancer.  There are many other causes of cancer, some are even worse than a cigarette.

According to CBS News, almost one third of Americans are obese (31.8 percent) which makes us the second fattest country in the world.  Obesity can cause cancer in the colon, breast, endometrium, kidney, gallbladder, ovaries, pancreas and esophagus.  It is also linked to diabetes, heart disease, and multiple autoimmune diseases just to name a few.  But there are no anti-fast food t-shirts given to students.  There are no anti-couch potato buttons passed out during anti-Burger King pep rallies.  And there are no anti-trans fat and MSG advertisements between reruns of The Big Bang Theory because as long as we can have our royal with cheese, who cares if consuming it will one day kill us.

Furthermore, it is unfair for establishments such as McDonald’s to advertise on primetime television and for cigarette companies such as Camel to be banned from such an action.  Both companies supply this world with some pretty bad long-term products (mainly suffering and death).  But one cannot be given special treatment because it tastes better than the other.  Using that logic Leonardo Dicaprio would have more Oscars than he would know what to do with because we ignore the fact that he plays the same character in almost all of his movies and love him because the character he plays is cool.  If health safety is going to be preached through our television screens it should at least be preached in an objective fashion.

Moreover, if such laws are going to remain in affect against cigarettes and the companies that made them (which they should), then they should also apply to fast-food companies such as McDonald’s.  If cigarettes are going to have a $1.33 per/pack tax on them, then so should every unhealthy option on the McDonald’s menu.  If cigarette boxes are going to have skull and crossbones on the back of them with a label explaining the dangers of smoking, then every McDonald’s bag and tray should have a skull and crossbones with a message explaining the very real effects of eating fast-food.

Smoking is bad.  There is no argument there.  Smoking cigarettes kills an estimated 1 in 5 people in the U.S. and for some reason, they can still be bought.  But cigarettes aren’t the only products that are dangerous and still available for purchase.  If it isn’t ok for someone to smoke on television, then it shouldn’t be ok for someone to chomp down on a Big Mac either.

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