Originally Posted by
Canarsie
If the attorneys in the legal department deem it necessary to add an anti-smoking disclaimer to the proposed forum should the motion be passed, so be it. I am neither for or against that happening...
I hope not just the lawyers, but management and employees of Internet Brands would want that warning directed at teen smokers and potential teen smoke to show they care about this major health issue that causes 6 million deaths a year around the world . They're the most vulnerable group in that 9 of 10 smokers try their first cigarette before age 18.
Originally Posted by
bdschobel
First of all, how many teenagers are the kind of frequent flyers who would use FlyerTalk? Probably not very many.
Each day 3,800 American teens under 18 try their first cigarette (1.4 million a year), and some of those teens during the course of a year will likely be among the 500,000 members of FlyerTalk (even a larger group with those that never register - could it be a million or more?). By having a forum discussing where you can smoke, those teens will think smoking is just fine because frequent flyers take airplanes, stay at hotels, rent cars, do manufactured spend, apply for credit cards, and also smoke and have a forum to discuss where they can smoke in airports and hotels. Just another day at FT. It shouldn't be. One line of text in the forum description will provide a minimum warning that FT does not find teen smoking acceptable.
None of us should feel fine about teen smoking. Would any of us encourage a teen child or relative to take up smoking with the known health risks? Would you send them over to a smokers forum to check out where they can smoke when traveling? Just one line of text is all I want. If the Talk Board doesn't want to provide that, I hope Internet Brands has a different point of view.
Originally Posted by
bdschobel
Sure, some people smoke.
It's a lot more than "some". 1.4 million American teens try their first cigarette each year. There are 480,000 American smoking related deaths each year, and over 6 million a year world wide.
From the CDC:
More than 10 times as many U.S. citizens have died prematurely from cigarette smoking than have died in all the wars fought by the United States during its history.
Smoking causes about 90% (or 9 out of 10) of all lung cancer deaths in men and women. More women die from lung cancer each year than from breast cancer.
About 80% (or 8 out of 10) of all deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are caused by smoking.
Originally Posted by
bdschobel
How many people need to lecture smokers? Aren't there enough already?
In terms of teen smokers, or teens thinking about starting up smoking, there can never be enough.
If smoking continues at the current rate among youth in this country, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 will die early from a smoking-related illness. That’s about 1 of every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger alive today.
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_stat...a/tobacco_use/