January 11 - Announcement of Smoking and Cancer Link

This Day in History: 11 January 2020

 

11 January 1964

 

56 years ago, today, American Surgeon General Luther Terry released his report announcing the definitive link between smoking and cancer. He intentionally chose to release the report on this day, which was a Saturday, to limit the immediate effects on the stock market. This link had been suspected previously, as anecdotal evidence had always pointed to the negative health effects of smoking, as well as the fact that 1930s physicians had noticed an increase in lung cancer cases. Medical studies published in Great Britain in the late 1940s were the first to raise serious concerns of the link. After this, cigarette companies in America spent much of the next decade protesting to keep smoking legal, advertising reduced levels of tar and nicotine.

 

Terry commissioned the report in 1962 and two years later, he released his findings, titled 'Smoking and Health', on this day, stating the conclusive link between smoking and heart and lung cancer in men, and stated the same link was likely true in women, although they smoked at a lower rates. This news was major, but not surprising. Tobacco companies spent millions and were largely successful in stopping anti-smoking laws until the 1990s. Studies have shown that smoking decreased by roughly 11% between 1965 and 1985 after the publication of the report, and Ireland was the first country in the world to introduce a total smoking ban in 2004.

 

Want to find out more about studies in the 20^th century that helped gain popularity to the US Stop-Smoking Movement? Click here for more details.