60 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH: U.S. Surgeon General Announces Definitive Link Between Cigarette Smoking and Cancer

nearly half of Americans smoked, and smoking was common in restaurants, bars, offices and homes

The Surgeon General report in 1964 highlighted the deleterious health consequences of tobacco use. Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General held cigarette smoking responsible for a 70 percent increase in the mortality rate of smokers over non-smokers.

HISTORY.COM – On January 11, 1964, United States Surgeon General Luther Terry released a groundbreaking government report announcing a definitive link between smoking and cancer.

Knowing his report was a bombshell, Terry intentionally chose to release it on that date, which fell on a Saturday, in order to limit its immediate effects on the stock market.

The link had long been suspected. Anecdotal evidence had always pointed to negative health effects from smoking, and by the 1930s physicians were noticing an increase in lung cancer cases. The first medical studies that raised serious concerns were published in Great Britain in the late 1940s.

American cigarette companies spent much of the next decade lobbying the government to keep smoking legal and advertising reduced levels of tar and nicotine in their products.

Some 44 percent of Americans already believed smoking caused cancer by 1958, and a number of medical associations warned that tobacco use was linked with both lung and heart disease. Despite all this, nearly half of Americans smoked, and smoking was common in restaurants, bars, offices and homes across the country.

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