View source for Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States

{{Short description|1964 US government report on the health effects of smoking}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
[[File:Smokingandhealthcover.jpg|thumb|Cover page of the report]]

'''''Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States''''' was a landmark report published on January 11, 1964, by the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health, chaired by the then [[Surgeon General of the United States]], Dr. [[Luther Terry|Luther Leonidas Terry]], M.D., regarding the negative health effects of [[tobacco smoking]].<ref name="full report">{{Cite report |url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/nn/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101584932X202-doc# |title=Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States |last=[[Surgeon General of the United States]] |date=1964 |publisher=[[United States Department of Health and Human Services|Department of Health, Education, and Welfare]] |volume=Public Health Service Publication No. 1103 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728033124/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-SMOKINGANDHEALTH/pdf/GPO-SMOKINGANDHEALTH.pdf |archive-date=28 July 2022}}</ref> 

== Background ==
The [[health effects of tobacco]] had been debated by users, medical experts, and governments alike since its introduction to European culture.<ref name="full report"/> Hard evidence for the ill effects of smoking became apparent with the results of several long-term studies conducted in the early to middle twentieth century, such as the epidemiology studies of [[Richard Doll]] and pathology studies of [[Oscar Auerbach]]. On June 12, 1957, then-Surgeon General [[Leroy Edgar Burney|Leroy Burney]] "declared it the official position of the U.S. Public Health Service that the evidence pointed to a causal relationship between smoking and lung cancer".<ref name="full report" /> A committee of the [[United Kingdom]]'s [[Royal College of Physicians]] issued a report on March 7, 1962,<ref name="Smoking and health 50 years on from landmark report (includes 1962 footage)">{{Cite news |last=Hughes |first=Dominic |date=March 6, 2012 |title=Smoking and health 50 years on from landmark report |work=[[BBC]] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17264442 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924043335/https://www.bbc.com/news/health-17264442 |archive-date=24 September 2022}}</ref> which "clearly indicted cigarette smoking as a cause of lung cancer and bronchitis" and argued that "it probably contributed to cardiovascular disease as well."<ref name="hhs">{{Cite web |title=Luther Leonidas Terry (1961–1965) |url=http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/about/previous/bioterry.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080916014247/http://surgeongeneral.gov/about/previous/bioterry.htm |archive-date=September 16, 2008 |website=[[United States Department of Health and Human Services|Department of Health and Human Services]]}}</ref> After pressure from the [[American Cancer Society]], the [[American Heart Association]], the [[National Tuberculosis Association]], and the [[American Public Health Association]], [[President of the United States|President]] [[John F. Kennedy]] authorized Surgeon General Terry's creation of the Advisory Committee. The committee met from November 1962 to January 1964 and analyzed over 7,000 scientific articles and papers.

== Committee members ==
The Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health:<ref name="full report"/>

* [[Stanhope Bayne-Jones]], M.D., LL.D. (Retired).
** Former Dean. Yale School of Medicine (1935–40), former President. Joint Administrative Board. Cornell University. New York Hospital Medical Center (1947–52): former president. Society of American Bacteriologists (1929). and American Society of Pathology and Bacteriology (1940). Field: Nature and Causation of Disease in Human Populations.
* Walter J. Burdette, M.D., Ph. D.
** Head of Department of Surgery. University of Utah, School of Medicine. Salt Lake City. Fields: Clinical and Experimental Surgery; Genetics.
* [[William Gemmell Cochran|William G. Cochran]], M.A.
** Professor of Statistics. Harvard University. Field: Mathematical Statistics with: Special Application to Biological Problems.
* [[Emmanuel Farber]], M.D., Ph. D.
** Chairman. Department of Pathology. University of Pittsburgh. Field: Experimental and Clinical Pathology.
* [[Louis F. Fieser]], Ph. D.
** Sheldon Emory. Professor of Organic Chemistry. Harvard University. Field: Chemistry of Carcinogenic Hydrocarbons.
* Jacob Furth, M.D.
** Professor of Pathology. Columbia University. and Director of Pathology Laboratories, Francis Delafield Hospital, New York. Field: Cancer Biology.
* John B. Hickam, M.D.
** Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine. Indiana University, Indianapolis. Fields: Internal Medicine. Physiology of Cardiopulmonary Disease.
* [[Charles LeMaistre]], M.D.
** Professor of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. and Medical Director. Woodland Hospital. Dallas, Texas. Fields: Internal Medicine. Pulmonary Diseases, Preventative Medicine.
* Leonard M. Schuman, M.D.
** Professor of Epidemiology. University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Minneapolis. Field: Health and its relationship to the Total Environment.
* Maurice H. Seevers, M.D., Ph. D.
** Chairman. Department of Pharmacology University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Department of Pharmacology. Field: Pharmacology of Anesthesia and Habit-Forming Drugs.
* Chairman: Luther L. Terry, M.D..
** Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service

== Findings ==
The report's conclusions were almost entirely focused on the negative health effects of cigarette smoking. It found:
* cigarette smokers had a seventy percent increase in age-corrected mortality rate
* cigarette smoke was the primary cause of chronic bronchitis
* a correlation between smoking, emphysema, and heart disease.
In addition, it reported:
* a causative link between smoking and a ten- to twenty-fold increase in the occurrence of lung cancer
* a positive correlation between [[Smoking and pregnancy|pregnant women who smoke]] and underweight newborns.<ref name="full report" />

As did the [[World Health Organization]] during this period, but possibly influenced by the fact that they were all smokers themselves,<ref name="whyquit">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rO3VHcAGiQ |title=The Surgeon General says ... |date=27 December 2010 |last=Spitzer |first=Joel |publisher=WhyQuit.com |author-link=Joel Spitzer |archive-date=6 October 2022 |via=[[YouTube]]}} Additional [https://whyquit.com/videos/addiction2_bb64Kbps.mp3 audio only link here]</ref> the Committee defined cigarette smoking as a "[[habituation]]" rather than an overpowering "[[addiction]]".<ref name="whyquit" /> Committee members agreed with most Americans that this habit (though often strong) was possible for individuals to break.

In the years that followed the Surgeon General's report, millions of Americans successfully chose to quit smoking, with two-thirds to three-quarters of ex-smokers quitting unaided by [[smoking cessation|nicotine replacement methods]]. In addition, the "cold turkey," or sudden-and-rapid-cessation, method has been found to be the most successful in terms of stopping smoking over long periods of time.<ref name="unassisted">{{Cite journal |last=Chapman |first=Simon |last2=MacKenzie |first2=Ross |date=February 9, 2010 |title=The Global Research Neglect of Unassisted Smoking Cessation: Causes and Consequences |journal=[[PLOS Medicine]] |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=e1000216 |doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000216 |pmc=2817714 |pmid=20161722}}</ref> However, in a controversial move in 1989, a later Surgeon General, Dr. [[C. Everett Koop]], M.D., shifted course and redefined cigarette smoking as "an addiction" rather than a habit.<ref name="sullum">{{Cite book |last=Sullum |first=Jacob |url=https://archive.org/details/foryourowngoodan00sull/page/234 |title=For Your Own Good : The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health |date=1998 |publisher=[[Free Press (publisher)|Free Press]] |isbn=9780684827360 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/foryourowngoodan00sull/page/234 234–235] |oclc=38206893 |author-link=Jacob Sullum |url-access=registration}}</ref>

== Effects ==

The report's publication had wide effects across the United States. It was deliberately published on a Saturday to minimize the negative effect on the American stock markets, while maximizing the coverage in Sunday newspapers.<ref name="full report" /> The release of the report was one of the top news stories of 1964. It led to policy and public opinion changes such as the [[Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act]] of 1965 and the [[Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act]] of 1969, which mandated warning labels on cigarettes and instituted a ban on the broadcasting of cigarette advertisements on radio and/or television.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of the Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health |url=https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/history/index.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928142902/https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/history/index.htm |archive-date=28 September 2022 |access-date=11 July 2019 |publisher=[[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] |language=en-us}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Tobacco in the United States]]

== References ==
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== External links ==
* [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-SMOKINGANDHEALTH/pdf/GPO-SMOKINGANDHEALTH.pdf Full text of the report] [https://web.archive.org/web/20220728033124/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-SMOKINGANDHEALTH/pdf/GPO-SMOKINGANDHEALTH.pdf Archived]
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[[Category:Health policy in the United States]]
[[Category:Reports of the United States government]]
[[Category:Smoking in the United States]]
[[Category:1964 in science]]
[[Category:1964 documents]]
[[Category:Tobacco researchers]]
[[Category:Health effects of tobacco]]