On January 11, 1964, the Surgeon General of the United States officially released his report on smoking and health, which, for the first time in American history, indicated a proven statistical link between smoking and illness. It was a big deal; such a newsworthy report that it was purposefully released on a Saturday in order to give the stock markets time to react properly and allow it to grace the front pages of Sunday papers around the country. Ultimately, it changed the face of commerce and health in this country.
While the report was big news, it wasn’t surprising. Many Americans smoked - a vastly higher proportion than do today - but the idea that tobacco had deleterious effects on the human body wasn’t a new concept. Since smoking exploded in popularity at the beginning of the twentieth century, there had always been voices warning that it was dangerous, sometimes specifically saying in contributed to “general malaise,” but none had gone far enough to try and prove links between certain diseases and smoking. But, by mid-century there had been enough education and understanding that in 1958, 44% of Americans polled believed there was a link between smoking and cancer. It was enough to force a response.
President Kennedy, responding to what had been euphemised as “the smoking question,” asked the Surgeon General, Luther Terry, to develop an official public health opinion on the matter. Terry convened a panel of ten public health experts who spent the next year poring over thousands of reports and scientific articles pertaining to smoking and heath, and ultimately arrived at a conclusion that smoking was not just bad for you, but that it specifically increased likelihood of numerous diseases and ailments including bronchitis and lung cancer. Within a few years, the share of Americans who believed in the link between smoking and cancer had nearly doubled, and before long Congress mandated that all cigarette packaging contain a health warning. As predicted, tobacco sales dropped, but the industry’s ultimate persistence proved that even when the assembled experts tell you something will eventually cause your demise, some people will just keep on going.