The 1964 Surgeon General's report linked smoking to cancer

The U.S. Surgeon General first officially linked smoking to cancer on January 11, 1964, when Luther Terry released Smoking and Health, the report of his Advisory Committee. Drawing on more than 7,000 published articles, it concluded that cigarette smoking was a cause of lung cancer and laryngeal cancer in men, a probable cause of lung cancer in women, and the most important cause of chronic bronchitis.

The report was a verdict, not a revelation. Doctors had noticed rising lung cancer by the 1930s, and British studies raised alarm in the late 1940s. The weaker wording for women reflected thin evidence, since women smoked at lower rates and less data existed. Before and after the verdict:

• 1958: About 44% of Americans already believe smoking causes cancer.
• 1964: The report adds the federal government’s authority, and the share accepting the link rises to about 70%. Terry still treats it as a bombshell, releasing it on a Saturday to limit its immediate effect on the stock market. Within a few years Congress requires health warnings on cigarette packs and bans cigarette advertising on radio and television.
• 1965: About 42.4% of US adults smoke.
• 2014: A 980-page 50th-anniversary report adds diabetes, arthritis, and liver and colorectal cancers to the list of diseases caused by smoking.
• 2022: The habit itself has collapsed: the adult smoking rate is down to 11.6%, roughly 28.8 million people, a little over a quarter of the old rate.

When that anniversary report appeared, acting Surgeon General Boris Lushniak summed up the cost:

“Since the first surgeons general report in 1964 over 20 million premature deaths can be attributed to cigarette smoking.” — Boris Lushniak, 2014