## Hoax #1: Long-term smoking is beneficial to health

The positive effects of smoking on human health were promoted in the 1930s and 1940s, when physicians were in advertisements that recommended certain brands of cigarettes would be less irritating to the throat. However, physicians were often influenced by tobacco companies, which sent them many cigarettes in return for these recommendations. In advertising, similar claims were made by doctors until the 1960s, even though doctors themselves had already confirmed the negative effects of long-term smoking on human health. Today we know that long-term smoking can trigger the development of various cancers (e.g. lung cancer), heart disease, infertility and weakening of the immune system. In the United States of America, as many as one in five deaths is due to smoking. Based on this information, we can say that long-term smoking is not beneficial to health in any way.