Dealing with Smoking-Technology

I would like to take a minute to explore some of the ways technology has helped and hurt the effort. Many could argue that technology is at the heart of the creation of this problem. Advances in technology made it possible for cigarettes to be produced and distrubuted on a massive scale. It has also allowed distributors to create their own cigarette formulas using a number of harmful additives.

Technology has been used for the effort of getting people to quit. All technologial outlets (television, radio, internet) have been a medium for running massive campaigns against cigarettes, while only one has been able to advertize for them (magazines, which are increasingly restricted as well.) The settlement of 1999 saw the fall of so many of the biggest cigarette ad forms, billboard advertisements. While technology is seen as the medium for getting the message out, the campgains are in fact a form of social engineering.