Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Student's Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 4. March 26 1968

Smokers 'sometimes resentful'

Smokers 'sometimes resentful'

Satirical smoking cartoon

"People who know they cannot give up smoking are sometimes resentful and they can be very rude," the Executive Officer of the Cancer Society, Mr. Robert Potter, said last week.

An apparatus showing the amount of tar in cigarettes was on display in the Student Union Building's foyer during the week.

Only two people had been rude to him, Mr. Potter said.

"Students were showing more concern about how to give up smoking." he said.

"There is no questioning of the validity of the relationship between smoking and lung cancer.

"But by the time people become concerned about this relationship they have already become addicted.

"There's only one way to give up. and that is to want to," he said.

"People who smoke say it helps their nerves. But it's actually non-smokers who have the best nerves.

"And if you give up the self-confidence is most satisfying."

"The important thing to know about cancer is that so little is known about it," he said.

The main cause of lung cancer is pretty certain, but we aren't very sure about other types of cancer."

Mr. Potter said that in some areas of the world cancer of the oesophagus was increasing dramatically.

In other places, including New Zealand, cancer of the stomach had almost disappeared.