Smoke Damage: Voices from the Front Lines of America’s Tobacco Wars

by Michael Schwalbe

Tobacco use causes over 440,000 premature deaths every year in the United States, or about 20 percent of all annual mortality in the nation. Such statistics remind us of the enormity of the problem, yet offer no insight into how tobacco-related disease is experienced by individuals and their families.
    Smoke Damage fills this gap by putting a human face on America’s most profitable and most preventable epidemic. Through interviews and photographs, sociologist Michael Schwalbe takes readers beyond the usual statistics and shows the real people—disease survivors, “tobacco widows,” educators, activists, legislators, lawyers, researchers, and farmers—on the front lines of America’s ongoing tobacco wars. The result is a poignant study of how tobacco-related disease is experienced not only by its victims but also by those who are dedicated to fighting it.
    In his introductory essay, Schwalbe examines the scope of the tobacco problem, discusses its economic roots, and writes of his own experience of tobacco’s costs. In his afterword, he explores patterns in the lives of disease survivors, offers policy recommendations, and invites readers to take action. Smoke Damage is for anyone whose life has been touched by tobacco-related disease and who wants to understand why the epidemic persists and what can be done to end it.

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2011

Reviews

[Grandma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure why I waited so long to add this as read. I read it quite some time ago. It really was impactful.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to win an advance copy of this book, through a Goodreads giveaway.

I was intrigued to read this book, as I myself, have lost three grandparents to smoking related cancers. All three of my grandparents, growing up in poor, rural West Virginia, started smoking as children - just as the generations before them. Luckily, this tradition stopped with my parents but as I was reminded while reading, that is not always the case.

Schwalbe does an amazing job of capturing 46 personal accounts of how smoking & the tobacco industry tears apart the lives of individuals, as well as the surviving family members. "The figure that concerns me here is also numbing -- 440,000 -- the approximate numbers of deaths attributable to tobacco-related disease every year in the United States. Globally the annual figure is six million. It's hard to feel what such numbers mean, or why they demand a greater response than they have yet received, without confronting individual cases" (Schwalbe).

Schwalbe's interviews, complete with accompanying photographs, capture the reality of what this addiction can do. One particular interview stood out to me the most...Frank Amodeo. "Three days from today, it'll be eighteen years since the last time I swallowed any food, or had anything to drink. That's why my voice is so bad. My vocal cords are dry. I haven't had a sip of water in eighteen years. I can't explain how thirsty I am. Every day of my life I'm thirsty. If I swallow water, it goes into my lungs. So I can't swallow water. If I swallow anything, it goes into my lungs. If I ate food, it stops right here, and I'll choke. So everything I eat goes through this tube into my stomach, ten times a day." This is his reality, after smoking from the time he was 13 through his 48th birthday, when he was diagnosed with cancer.

Schwalbe points out that, "if cigarettes, were invented today, they would not be allowed to come to market. The reason is simple: cigarettes, if used as intended, will cause premature death among half of all lifetime smokers. It would be fair to call such a product defective." Perhaps Schwalbe's book will be a catalyst for change & the eventual removal of this product from the market, at least I can hope.

[Amandaj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is one I received through a goodreads giveaway. I could see this book sitting on a table in a doctors, or a dentists office, or somewhere out and about in a hospital. Or I could see it used in a public health class. It is that kind of book. On every page there is a small summary of a person that has been affected by smoking in some way or another, or have made an impact on the anti-smoking movement, whether they smoked or not.
It is a good book for the fact that it shares the stories of the damage of smoking(although it is not a book to help someone quit smoking, that is ultimately the issue--people shouldn't smoke). The problem with smoking is that often enough people who smoke don't think that they will be the one to get cancer, or emphysema, etc. I grew up being educated not to smoke. Still, kids picked the habit up. People who want to smoke will still smoke, even if they know they shouldn't. And I know how addicting it can be. As someone in a public health position it is all too familiar. This book is geared towards the big picture and it does a good job of encompassing the different angles of "America's Tobacco Wars". So, for a person involved in public health I think this book can be a good tool.

[Angela Metzger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over all the idea of this book is very good and very much needed. I think the profiles should have been a bit more raw I just don't feel what the survivors have went threw. Maybe because its just been a year since my fathers death and my mother is slowing dieing from smoking I was hoping this book would scare the crap out of smokers but i'm not sure it will. But it does show what can happen if you smoke. The details of after math of what happens when a family is destroyed from smoking just is not as strong as I would have liked to have seen it. As someone who has lived threw watching family members die from smoking this left me a little disappointed, but it does get the facts out there. The photos are beautifully done but again to pretty when covering this subject i kinda felt that they really don't show the pain of a survivor.


I received my book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book where the author has gathered together the stories of about 46 people who have had experience with smoking in some form - either smoking themselves, seen loved ones dies from smoking related diseases, activists, etc. Each person's brief story (one page) is accompanied with their photo. It personalizes the fact that thousands of people die from smoking related diseases every day. I am so glad that I have never smoked! Perhaps this book may inspire others to quit or never to start smoking. Many of the activists were involved in getting smokefree workplaces and restaurants laws passed which I am very glad about! The only thing about this book is while at the very end there is a list of websites and resources, I would think it would have been a little better to include a little more info on how one can try to quit smoking. But other than that, the stories were interesting.

I won this copy of the book in one of the Goodread giveaways.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a giveaway.
This book put faces to all of the horror stories you hear about smoking. Gritty and heartfelt without being too full of statistics. These are real people that have a story to share, have suffered, or have seen a family member or friend suffer. An excellent book to give to anyone you know that smokes, have been affected by smoking or have beat the odds and quit.
Easy to read and full of beautiful photography. I didn't think I would like reading a book like this, but it wasn't as dark as I first thought it would be. It's honest.

[Winnifred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodread giveaway!

The message was clear: Tobacco is harmful.
The black and white pictures really hit you hard because it's not going to sugarcoat it with colorful pictures. The more you read, the angrier you do get.
With so much statistics and interviews from first hand people, its hard not to be affected by it. So much effort and so much stories was poured into the making of this, and it definitely deserves praise for trying to change the way the government responds to tobacco addiction.
As a plus, the metaphorical title really brings out the seriousness of this issue.

[Heaven is a bookstore]

I am really looking forward this book. I quit smoking this year in January and though it was really hard to do, I am so glad I did it. This book will be an interesting read.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Wow. Wow. I received this book in the mail today and immediately started reading it. As a smoker, this book definitely made an impression on me. Well done and a quick read.