Tobacco Documents Online

1 Rkhmond. Times-Dispateh, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 1968 3.1 . Ex-Sur~eon General Views Decline Decrease in Smoking Noted Cigarette smok~ng,is under- going a gradual and con- s i s t e n t decrease among Americans as a result of the 1964 Surgeon General's Re- port On Smoking an& newer, reinforcing evidence against cigarette smoking. This was indicated here yesterday by the man who was Surgeon General when the widely discussed anti- sinoking goKernment report was prepared and released - Dr. Luther L. Terry. ~Dr. ' Terry, who was Sur- g.e o n General from 1961 through Sept., 1965, and' who currently is vice president of medical affairs at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, wass in~town attending the centen- nial convention of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. In an interview, Dr. Terry noted that when the report generally condemning ciga- rette smoking as a major health hazard was release& in January, 1964, "There was: a , dramatic response during the next few months."' Pre-Report Levels Then, he said smoking, came back to pre-report 1 e v e I s and subsequently changed little. But within the: past year, Dr. Terry contin- ued, there has been more consistent decrease in smok- (4) Stak Photo Dr. Luther L. Terry Attends PIKA Meeting ing than has been detected at any other time. "The evidence keeps ac- cumulating, and more people appear to be appreciating and responding to it," he said. "We're beginning to see a tangible, consistent re- ` sponse. . . . It is not a sharp response,, but a more gradual one." Dr. Terry also said that a large percentage of doctorss have stopped smoking. In 1963, 65 per cent of physi- cians smoked, whereas now less than 25 per cent are smokers, according to Dr. Terry. This, he continued, in- dicates that those who are "able to evaluate the validity of the information are re- sponding to it first." More generally, Dr. Terry added, the beginning of some lon.g-term~ effects of the Sur- geon General's report are currently evident. "A lot of adults are con- cerned and are quitting, an& a growing percentage of youngsters are not taking it up," he said. On Medical Field Dr. Terry, who became a Pi Kappa Alpha member while at Birmingbam-South- ern College, also ha& some observations on the medical field in general. He note& that there had been a long recognized need for federal assistance to medical schools, but the first action along these lines came in 1963 witti~ the Health-Profes- sion Assistance Act: = Since then 17 new medical schools have either gone into operation or are in the build- ing phase, and eight or nine others are in the planning_ stages, he said. There were about 7,800 med- ical school graduates this year, but by 1972 there will be nearly 10,000. But even then, with the increasing pop- ulation, the physician-popu- lation ratio will ' not be sig- nificantly improved, he in- dicated. Hence, "We also have to do more to Improve the efficfen- cy of the physician, " Dr. Terry said; noting that it's "perfectly obvious that a lot of things a physician does can be done by others."' One suggestion for improv- ing the physician's efficiency is to ttain "physicians' assis, tants"' - people "along the lines of a traine& medical corpsman," Dr. Terry said. He also suggested that group practice of physicians will, help make medical care services more available to the population. "I'm person- ally convinced th8t a group of, say, 10 doctors„ can serve a population better than; if they practiced separately," he said. 1 ;5