Smoking in the 60s

Smoking was still popular in the 60s despite health worries

Smoking was still extremely popular in the sixties. In the sixties nearly 70% of men and around 40% of women smoked. The most popular brand in the UK was "Embassy Filter".

In our survey most men smoked, but not all and less than half of the women. Woodbines were considered the cheapest cigarettes and Peter Stuyvesant was an up-market brand. Some men smoked pipes or cigars.

The risks of smoking were well known by the end of the sixties, but most people preferred not to think about them. The tobacco industry kept the habit alive by a campaign of confusing and contradictory information.

More on smoking...

See our article about smoking in the 70s.

Your comments about smoking in the 60s

In 1966, at age 23 I was with Canada's Department of External Affairs on my first posting, to our Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York City. I was able to buy cigarettes duty free at 6 cents a package of 20 and liquor for $2.00 a 40 oz! So my smoking, which began with the odd cigarette at age 12 to a pack a day increased considerably.

After I was in New York for about two months a radio announcer indicated that New York was entering the second year of a drought [it eventually lasted nearly four years before regular rainfalls returned] and if one was living and working in the city [which I was], breathing the air was like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Well I noticed I was coughing a lot and since I was smoking 2-3 pack a day I thought I had better cut down. I began by only smoking at parties. I did not cut down much since there were parties virtually every evening. In a time when smoking was permitted in the office and almost everywhere I decided I had to stop completely.

I had my last cigarette on New Years eve 1966. It was the best decision I ever made! I have watched good friends who could not quit, die a slow painful death because of smoking. However, I am proud that I was instrumental with encouraging about 50 people to stop and this was in the days before the dangers to health were so well publicized. I cannot understand why anyone would smoke today.

Ron McGuire