Is democracy good for people's health? A South African perspective

Abstract

drivers were involved in crashes while smoking.In 1944, smoking was banned on trains and buses in cities.It was also prohibited in many workplaces, public buildings, hospitals, and rest homes.The advertising of smoking products was strictly controlled, and there was discussion on whether people with smoking related illnesses should receive medical care equal to that of patients with illnesses not seen to be self inflicted.Many leading Nazis-such as Robert Ley, leader of the German Labour Front, Hans Reiter, president of the Reich Health Office, and both Gerhard Wagner and Leonardo Conti, the successive Führers of German medicine-attested to the benefits of not smoking.Adolf Hitler was the star performer in antismoking propaganda.As one magazine stated, "Brother national socialist, do you know that your Führer is against smoking and thinks that every German is responsible to the whole people for all his deeds and missions, and does not have the right to damage his body with drugs?"Smoking was only one of the health related behaviours that received attention in Nazi Germany.The consumption of alcohol was also strongly campaigned against.Fruit and vegetable consumption was encouraged, as was the use of wholemeal bread and the avoidance of fat. 1 A key figure in Nazi medicine, Erwin Liek, predicted that cancer would come to be seen as a product of diet. 2 The consumption of whipped cream seems to have been a particular target of disapproval.The official newspaper of the SS, Das Schwarzes Korps, reported on German tourists in Austrian coffee houses and said that anyone would "think Greater Germany was only created so that this raving Philistine rabble can wolf whipped cream."A prominent promilitarist slogan read, "Fighting power or whipped cream?"Considerable interest was shown in the notion that a poor intrauterine environment would have long term deleterious effects on offspring.A 1942 health manual proclaimed "mothers, you must absolutely avoid alcohol and nicotine during pregnancy and when nursing.They hinder, they harm, they disrupt the normal course of pregnancy.Drink fruit juice."A public health