January 11, 2014 was the fiftieth anniversary of the Surgeon General’s landmark report titled Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General. Many studies conducted through the 1940’s and 1950’s found that smoking was a major factor in causing lung cancer, coronary disease, bronchitis, and emphysema. Despite the evidence, there was debate and doubt about the health consequences from smoking; doubt that was strategically flamed by the tobacco industry.
In 1962, President John Kennedy asked his Surgeon General, Luther Terry, to convene a group of experts to review the evidence and provide a definitive answer on the relationship between smoking and health. Ten experts in the fields of medicine, epidemiology, statistics, and pharmacology were brought together. All were vetted for having done no prior research on tobacco and health. Five smoked and five didn’t.
The result of their exhaustive study was released on a Saturday for fear that the findings would set off a stock market collapse. The expert panel determined that cigarette smoking certainly causes illness and death. They determined that people who smoke had a ten to twenty fold increased risk for lung cancer, and that cigarette smoking was correlated with emphysema and heart disease. The Surgeon General in that report called for remediation. The US Congress decided a year later that a small warning label would suffice.
The 1964 report was one milestone in an ongoing struggle against an unprecedented public health scourge. While smoking rates have dropped by more than half since 1964, the health warning was clearly not enough. Almost one in five people in the United States continue to smoke. While the tobacco companies discussed in internal memos in 1963 that addicting people to nicotine is the core of their business, it was another 25 years before the Surgeon General published a report on nicotine addiction. And still today, each day, 1,000 more children become daily smokers.
We know how to end the tobacco epidemic. What is lacking is the political will. By increasing taxes on cigarettes, making all workplaces throughout the United States smoke free, stopping all advertising and promotion of cigarettes, and providing treatment to all who want to stop, we can put an end to the biggest threat to public health in our lifetime, a threat we’ve known about for fifty years.
I'm 75 and remember it well and loved John F. Kennedy. Do you think I did anything about it? No! I was in my twrnties and having such a good time. It was in every movie and on the T V. I did have some friends that actually quit in that time. Oh how I wish I had been one. I'm actually pretty lucky as my heart Dr. and family Dr. tell me I'm healthy as a horse. Exact words from heart guy and this was before I quit. I had had a heart attack but they determined it to be from bad teeth. Didn't neglect them just went to Mexico and let them crown everything. Doesn't last for ever and I was living in AZ. I was diagnosed with a TINY, also exact words, bit of emphasema. I had run, walked and excercized a lot. That must have hlped some. They told me to get in inhaler, no big deal. Changed Ins. and put me on Albuterol and a machine, woudn't pay for the inhaler. I don't always feel good after using that stuff. Any way poor me huh? I mainly think of all the money wasted, pissing off my kids and smelling bad. I now after 59 days of no smoke picked up a e_cigarette. I'm not running around puffing all day but like a baby and a pacifier I like to know I have it in case and do pick it up. I'm sure I probably should as yes it has 4 gm nicotine, just checked. I like smelling good and I don't think uch about cigarettes except when I see my husband smoke in the garage. I try to avoid that but do go out sometimes when not sure he is in there. Good suject Thanks Carol Turner