QUESTIONS, ANSWERS and RELATED PROJECTS
(short answer is underlined)

1. Why is the Video called "They're Rich, You're Dead"?

The tobacco companies are selling poison for profit! They make billions of dollars each year while their product kills millions of people each year. When their product is used exactly as intended, users become addicted to it and every second smoker dies on av-erage 15 years prematurely because of it! There is court evidence that tobacco companies deliberately manipulated natural tobacco to enhance nicotine absorption and thereby increase its addictive power. For example, they added flavorants such as menthol to mask the harshness of nicotine and produce a milder cigarette smoke. This facilitated inhalation into the lungs where nicotine (and other toxic chemicals) are more rapidly absorbed across the vast respiratory epithelium. They added ammonia to their tobacco which greatly increases nicotine solubility in body tissues and greatly increases nicotine absorption from the respiratory tract. This is not unlike the process where "street" cocaine is treated with aqueous ammonia or sodium bicarbonate to get the free base form of cocaine, which is also more rapidly absorbed into the body. They have actually referred to their cigarettes as "nicotine delivery devices" and have targeted children in their ads and promotions. There are court uncovered internal documents from big tobacco companies which state "the base of our business is the high school student". Through deception and disinformation, big tobacco companies denied for years that their products were harmful, addictive and targeted to children despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The total number of premature deaths from tobacco is more than the number of deaths from AIDS, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, murder, suicide, fire and car wrecks combined! This makes us mad, and that's why our Video is called "They're Rich, You're Dead". (See Video Script pgs 37-38 for outraged opinions of sixth grade students, a teenager, an adult smoker and Tim Hardaway - NBA basketball player.) (also see slides a, b, c, d, e, f , g, h)

Tobacco smoke contains more than 400 poisonous chemicals, 40 of which are known to cause cancer. The Surgeon General has reported that smoking is the major preventable cause of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, emphysema and premature death. It accounts for an estimated 430,000 premature United States deaths per year (approximately 45% from coronary heart disease and stroke, 34% from cancer and 20% from chronic bronchitis and emphysema) and costs the economy at least 100 billion dollars in health care costs and lost productivity.

*2. If tobacco is so bad, why is it legal?

When tobacco use started to increase in the early 1900's, the health hazards were largely unknown. Shortly thereafter, tobacco companies discovered that their product was highly addictive and lethal, but suppressed this information and conspirationally even cast doubt on the valid scientific findings of others that tobacco was indeed addictive and lethal. This delayed public appreciation of the health hazards of tobacco for decades. Meanwhile, millions of people became addicted to tobacco and to this day