CURIOSITIES
Highlights of the collections, presentations, and oral history interviews of The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society.
“Safer Cigarettes” in the 21st Century: Contemporary Health Claims
At the close of the 20th century tobacco makers began to introduce “safer” cigarettes, by introducing light cigarettes and alternatives to combustible cigarettes that would be among the forerunners of electronic cigarettes…
A Filter Made of Tobacco Itself
As concerns about the health effects of cigarettes mounted in the mid 20th century, Brown and Williamson introduced a novel way to combat fears about tobacco… more tobacco…
Eight Medical Ashtrays
A gallery of five medical ashtrays from various hospitals and insurers…
The “JAMA” Ashtray, Dan Delmonico & The United States Military Ashtray Museum
Dan DelMonico, a Miami entrepreneur who founded the United States Military Ashtray Museum in 2019, sets the record straight about a valued CSTS artifact…
Camel Artists Packs
In 2016 plain cigarette packaging was introduced in the United Kingdom, France, and New Zealand. Ireland followed in 2018 and Hungary and Canada in 2019. Even if these measures aimed at curbing the tobacco industry’s use of the package as a promotional mini-billboard have yet to achieve the drop in cigarette consumption that proponents had hoped for…
Ron Bloomberg: Penned Historic Anti-Smoking Ad
Inspired by the pioneering efforts of Washington, DC attorney John Banzhaf III in the late-1960s to oppose cigarette commercials on TV, Ron Bloomberg, owner of a Philadelphia advertising agency, contacted Banzhaf to offer his assistance. Banzhaf, the founder of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) asked him to write an advertisement that was published in The Washington Post calling on Congress to ban cigarette ads on TV and radio.
Tanning Bedlam
Although the American Cancer Society and the American Academy of Dermatology strongly warn against using tanning beds, no website dedicated to countering the use and promotion of tanning beds exists. Accordingly, this website TANNING BEDLAM will attempt to expose and debunk misleading claims by the tanning bed industry…
Lorillard’s KENT Micronite Filter Asbestos and the Quest for a Safer Cigarette
In 1952, using the popular new medium of television, the P. Lorillard Co. sponsored “scientific” demonstrations to show the efficacy and implied health benefits of its KENT Micronite filter. The campaign also featured advertisements in medical journals. Although the ads did not disclose the composition of “Micronite,” the material that Lorillard touted as “so safe, so effective …
Smoke and Mirrors at the AMA
At a spring 1980 meeting of the governing council of the American Medical Association Resident Physician Section (AMA-RPS), support for anti-smoking activism by young doctors only went so far. In this excerpt of the open recording of the meeting by the AMA-RPS secretary, Dr. Joe Selliken, the group votes to try to prevent the individual it entered in the AMA’s National Public Speaking Competition from donating the $1000 first prize to his anti-smoking organization, DOC (Doctors Ought to Care). Dr. Selliken is the lone voice opposing the group’s decision to keep the money for itself.
Stan Sawyer: Voice of Salem Cigarette Commercials, Host of Kids’ TV Show
Los Angeles family physician Howard Sawyer, MD, contacted the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society after reading the cover story of the May 7, 2021 issue of The Cancer Letter…
YOUR DRUG STORE AND CANCER CENTER
Presented originally for the 2009 National Conference on Tobacco or Health in Phoenix, Arizona this exhibition was expanded for the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York later the same year. The focus of this exhibition is the partnership between tobacco pushers and pharmacy stores with items that highlight the absurdity of this relationship – such as promotions for free makeup with the purchase of cigarettes.