W. Kip Viscusi

W. Kip Viscusi does an economic analysis of the issues every individual must resolve before deciding to smoke, since each smoking action is fraught with potentially hazardous consequences. Some effectively cheat death, but the statistical majority is not so fortunate.

Curiously, Viscusi suggests that the unfettered marketplace will likely produce a safer cigarette becasuse smokers will demand that. However, as was made very clear in recent history and portrayed graphically in the recent (2012) movie, Addiction Incorporated, here IS no 'safer cigarette' and (whether or not producing such a product could become technically feasible), the 'search for a safer cigarette' was abandoned when nicotine researchers discovered how to make cigarettes more addictive (and thus potentially more profitable for the tobacco companies). This research was kept 'top secret' until investigation (with FOIA and pilfered documents) blew the lid on the unseemly enterprise which, until that time, had been a lifeline for the tobacco companies while being a direct deathline to the smokers themselves.… (mais)