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Should Peter Jackson warn children against the hazards of smoking? - Lord of the Rings news - J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

October 08, 2000 at 13:14:12

The Evening Post has run a story about the revelation in Sir Ian McKellen's recent radio review that the hobbits in Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' movies will be smoking their pipes quite frequently.

J.R.R. Tolkien loved his pipe, and he felt his hobbits should love a good pipe, too. But Tolkien died only a few years after the dangers of tobacco smoking started reaching the public. The United States Surgeon General took action only in the mid-1960s by requiring a warning on cigarette and tobacco labels. Tolkien died in 1973.

It's only in recent years that the full facts about the tobacco companies' efforts to deceive the public about the dangers of tobacco (and their own efforts to enhance its additctive nature) have come to light. For the sake of making money, a handful of people have condemned to death millions of consumers who knew no better than to believe the marketing and entertainment industries who showed them it was cool and pleasurable to smoke.

Pipe smoking, some people say, is less dangerous than cigarette smoking. Tobacco is tobacco. It's still dangerous. And cancer is only one of the many diseases associated with tobacco use. Emphysema, asthma, and other respiratory illnesses may be caused by tobacco use. And though people may be sick and tired of hearing about the perils of secondary smoke, many children of smoking parents have asthma and other respiratory conditions which are either caused or exacerbated by their parents' smoking.

It's great that Peter Jackson has elected to be faithful to Tolkien in as many respects as possible. But how many children should be condemned to a lifetime of addiction to tobacco for the sake of producing three faithful movies? Is even one life worth that kind of production quality?

Let us know what you you think in our Lord of the Rings movies forum.