Ethics and the Tobacco Industry

Health advocates assert that tobacco is the first or second leading cause of preventable death among humans, contributing to cancer, lung disease, and coronary heart disease, among other ailments, and that the addictive properties of cigarette ingredients prevent smokers who desire to quit from doing so. While cigarettes are the primary culprit, other tobacco products, such as cigars and pipe tobacco, are potentially equally or even more dangerous, but because they are less prevalent, they do not pose public health risks on the same scale as cigarettes. Smokeless (chewing) tobacco is said to cause other health problems, such as mouth cancer. The risks of tobacco use are not limited to users of tobacco, since carcinogens, or cancercausing agents, can be passed on to others through ...