It's the first thing some reach for when they wake up:
"Historic report on smoking marks 50th anniversary; Document was start of effort to curb tobacco use" by Mike Stobbe | Associated Press, January 05, 2014
ATLANTA — Fifty years ago, ashtrays seemed to be on every table and desk. Athletes and even Fred Flintstone endorsed cigarettes in TV commercials. Smoke hung in the air in restaurants, offices, and airplane cabins.
More than 42 percent of US adults smoked, and there was a good chance your doctor was among them.
The turning point came on Jan. 11, 1964. It was on that Saturday morning that US Surgeon General Luther Terry released an emphatic and authoritative report that said smoking causes illness and death — and the government should do something about it.
In the decades that followed, warning labels were put on cigarette packs, cigarette commercials were banned, taxes were raised, and new restrictions were placed on where people could light up….
And the taxpayer subsidies continued to flow to tobacco companies.
Not only that, we will $anction any country that doesn't accept our $mokes.
And don't get me wrong; I'm pro-smoker.
The report’s bottom-line message was hardly revolutionary. Since 1950, head-turning studies that found higher rates of lung cancer in heavy smokers had been appearing in medical journals. A widely read article in Reader’s Digest in 1952, ‘‘Cancer by the Carton,’’ contributed to the largest drop in cigarette consumption since the Depression. In 1954, the American Cancer Society announced that smokers had a higher cancer risk.
But the tobacco industry fought back. Manufacturers came out with cigarettes with filters that they claimed would trap toxins before they settled into smokers’ lungs. And in 1954, they placed a full-page ad in hundreds of newspapers in which they argued that research linking their products and cancer was inconclusive.
It was a brilliant counteroffensive that left physicians and the public unsure how dangerous smoking really was. Cigarette sales rebounded.
In 1957 and 1959, Surgeon General Leroy Burney issued statements that heavy smoking causes lung cancer. But the reports had little impact.
Amid pressure from health advocates, President John F. Kennedy’s surgeon general, Dr. Terry, announced in 1962 that he was convening an expert panel to examine all the evidence and issue a comprehensive, debate-settling report. To ensure the panel was unimpeachable, he let the tobacco industry veto any proposed members it regarded as biased.
Surveys indicated a third to a half of all physicians smoked tobacco products at the time, and the committee reflected the culture: Half its 10 members were smokers, who puffed away during committee meetings….
The press conference was held on a Saturday partly out of concern about its effect on the stock market. About 200 reporters attended….
--more--"
Be prepared for a roll out of new antismoking campaigns, readers -- but not here.
Also see: Boston Common, now cigarette-free, was once a smokers’ haven
What a ball drop.
Related: Burned Lips in Colorado
Globe forgot all about it. What are they smoking over there, huh?
