Rob Thompson, NCPIRG Advocate

Being Right (And Not Being Shy About It)

Big Tobacco managed to perpetuate several myths about cigarettes throughout the second half of the 20th Century. These myths include: cigarettes don’t cause cancer or heart disease; nicotine isn’t addictive; and secondhand smoke isn’t dangerous.

How did they do this? They used an addictive product to make billions of dollars and then reinvested that money to fund junk science to prove the safety of their deadly product. They gave generously to generations of politicians, and persuaded many of our lawmakers not to regulate smoking.

In short, they used their money and political power to prevent common-sense regulations like banning the sale of cigarettes to minors, putting warning labels on cigarette packs, and now, restricting smoking in indoor workplaces.

But the tobacco industry always has one problem—it’s never right.

The people who successfully fought to ban cigarette sales to minors, who fought to put warning labels on packages, and who are now working to protect North Carolina’s workforce from secondhand smoke have always been right. Unfortunately, as you probably know, being right doesn’t always translate into positive change.

Here at NCPIRG, we’ve always believe that it’s not enough to be right. You have to be right and persistently outspoken.

For instance, it took until 1998 for advocates to convince all 50 states to ban the sale of cigarettes to minors, despite decades of science documenting the addictiveness and negative health effects of cigarettes. And after years of fighting, several states and many more cities across the country have created workplaces that are free of secondhand smoke. Now North Carolina wants to do the same.

We’re right—our research shows that secondhand smoke kills at least 35,000 non-smokers every year and that there is no safe level of secondhand smoke. Our research—the peer-reviewed, scientific kind—flies in the face of tobacco-funded claims that indoor smoking bans hurt business.

Now it’s time to be loud about being right.

Rob Thompson is an advocate for NCPIRG