Product Design
Smoking & Health: A Report of the Surgeon General-Part 1 of 9
Abstract
Contains 1979 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health, a compendium of 22 scientific papers on smoking and health, "commissioned by the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, compiled by 12 agencies of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare," which confirms the results of the first Report in 1964. Discusses the health consequences of smoking; the behavioral aspects of smoking; and education and prevention. States "cigarette smoking is even more dangerous - indeed, far more dangerous - than was supposed in 1964." Includes a section on women and smoking, a topic not extensively discussed in the 1964 report, noting that lung cancer has increased "fivefold among women since 1955." Argues that smoking is something for which every American taxpayer pays. States "smoking is the largest preventable cause of death in America." Includes section on high-risk populations, such as women, youth, minorities, and workers exposed to occupational hazards. Notes that cigarette products have changed considerably in the past 25 years, particularly the increase of cigarettes with filters and a decrease in average tar and nicotine delivery.
User-Contributed Notes
Fields
- Author
- U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Public Health Service
- U.S. Surgeon General
- Hypothesis
- Health effectsDesign changes which have measurably altered health effects of cigarette smoke, both for smokers and nonsmokers.
- Low-yield cigarettes
Modification of low yield products to assure that adequate levels of nicotine delivery are maintained, and effects of yield changes on toxicity and dependence.- Measuring human intake
Development of scientifically valid procedures for measuring tar and nicotine levels that more accurately reflect human intake.- Measuring human smoking behavior
Measuring the effects of changes in human smoking behavior on intake of nicotine and smoke constituents.- Measuring overall toxicity
Development of scientifically valid protocols and methods for testing the health and toxicity effects of changes in product design.- Sidestream constituent yields
Modification of selected sidestream smoke constituents in response to health concerns.- Smoke constituent testing
Development of methods for measurement of gas and particulate yields in mainstream and sidestream smoke.- Smoking psychology and behavior
- Toxicity and consumer intake
Development of scientifically valid procedures for measuring biological activity and neurological effects of nicotine and smoke constituents.- Use of additives
Modification of tobacco products through use of additives and measuring effects on dependence, behavior, and toxicity.- Use of filters, paper, and ventilation
Modification of tobacco products through use of filters, paper, and ventilation, and measuring effects on dependence, behavior, and toxicity.- Use of tobacco processing/ blends
Modification of tobacco products through changes in tobacco processing and use of blends, and measuring effects on dependence, behavior, and toxicity. - Low-yield cigarettes
- Keyword
- Addiction (Dependence)
- Animal testing
- Carcinogenic (Cancer-causing)
- Cardiovascular system (Heart)
- Central nervous system (CNS)
- Ciliatoxic
- Ex-smokers
- Inhalation (Smoke inhalation)
- Irritation (Attribute measure)
- Lung cancer
- Metabolite
- Nicotine delivery (Smoke nicotine or nicotine yield)
- Passive Smoking
- Physiological effects
- Puff duration (Puff length)
- Puff frequency
- Puff interval (Time between puffs)
- Puff volume (Puff amount)
- Pyrolysis
- Receptors
- Safer cigarette
- Secondhand Smoke (Sidestream smoke, SS)
- Smoking and Health
- Social psychology
Coping/stress management, image, and personality- Tar/Nicotine ratio (Nicotine/Tar Ratio or T/N ratio)
- Total particulate matter (TPM or Tar)
- Toxicity
- Trigeminal chemoreception (Trigeminal nerves)
- Tumorigenic
- Withdrawal
- Animal testing
- Smoke Constituent
- Acetaldehyde (RCHN)
- Acetone
- Acetonitrile
- Acrolein
- Acrylonitrile
- Alcohol
- Aldehydes
- Ammonia
- Benzene
- Benzo(a)pyrene
- Carbon dioxide
- Carbon monoxide
- Cresol (Kresol)
- Formaldehyde
- Furfural
- Gas phase constituents
- Hydrogen cyanide (HCN)
- Hydroquinone
- Isoprene
- Ketones
- Metals
- Nicotine
- Nitric oxides
- Nitrosamines (N-nitrosamines)
- Particulate phase constituents
- Phenols
- Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
- Pyridine
- Quinoline
- Acetone
- Design Component
- Cellulose acetate filter (CA filter, Conventional filter)
- Flavorant
- Humectant
- Reconstituted tobacco
- Selective filtration
- Flavorant
- Named Organization
- Albany Medical College
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
- American College of Chest Physicians
- *American Health Foundation (Use American Health Foundation (IFCP)) (Health Research)
1993 American Health Foundation - Directed by the late Dr. Ernst Wynder. Took funds from PM and Kraft for research relating to dietary and lifestyle causes of lung cancer.- American Heart Association (Voluntary health organization that focuses on cardiac health)
Voluntary health organization that focuses on cardiac health and stroke. AHA occasionally teams with tobacco retailers to engage in promotions/fund-raisers (see http://www.smokefree.net/doc-alert/messages/247136.html and http://www.rawbw.com/~jpk/stand/Pictures.html).- American Hospital Association
- American Medical Association (physicians group)
Professional trade group representing American physicians.- American Public Health Association (Public health organization)
Professional organization for people working in public health- Boston University Medical Center
- California State Health Department
- *Center for Disease Control (Use United States Centers for Disease Control and P
Now Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Formerly Communicable Disease Center- Center for Research on Mothers & Children
- Center for Ulcer Research & Education
- Community Program Development Division
- Cornell Medical School
- *Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) (use United States Departmen (use @hew_dept)
- Enviro Control, Inc.
- Federal Trade Commission (Enforcement agency for laws against deceptive advertising)
Enforces laws against false and deceptive advertising, including ads for tobacco products. Ensures proper display of health warnings in ads and on tobacco products;collects and reports to Congress information concerning cigarette and smokeless tobacco advertising, sales expenditures, and the tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide content of cigarettes.- Harvard University
- House Subcommittee on Health & the Environment
- Human Learning & Behavior Branch
- Informatics Incorporated
- Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene Public Health (Located in Baltimore, Maryland)
- Journal of the American Medical Assocation JAMA
- Journal of the National Cancer Institute
- Loma Linda University
- Louisiana State University
- Massachusetts General Hospital
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Mayo Clinic (Located in Rochester, Minnesota)
Has a nicotine dependence center; runs the smoking cessation program at the Mayo Clinic- Medical College of Virginia
- Millard Fillmore Hospital
- Mount Sinai Medical Center
- National Cancer Institute NCI
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Institute located in Rockville, MD- National Center for Health Statistics (Keeps statistics on health-related matters)
Plaintiff- National Clearinghouse for Smoking and Health (NCSH)
NCSH was created in 1964 by the Public health Service. Forerunner of the Office on Smoking and Health. Responsible for creating reports on the health effects of smoking.- National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health NIOSH (NIOSH)
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is NIOSH.- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
- National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism & Digestive Diseases
- National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
- National Institute of Education
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (An addiction research center in Baltimore, MD)
An addiction research center located in Baltimore, MD- National Institutes of Health
- National Tuberculosis Association
- Naylor Dana Institute for Disease Prevention
- New England Journal of Medicine
- New York Medical College
- New York University
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Contract research lab; does gov't work and also takes private contracts.- Oxford University
- Royal College of Physicians (Monitors the quality of Canadian/U.K. medical education)
- Tobacco Institute (Industry Trade Association)
The purpose of the Institute was to defeat legislation unfavorable to the industry, put a positive spin on the tobacco industry, bolster the industry's credibility with legislators and the public, and help maintain the controversy over "the primary issue" (the health issue).- Tulane University
- U.S. Office of Education
- United States Congress
- United States Department of Agriculture (Agency responsible for tobacco price support program)
- United States Food and Drug Administration
- United States Public Health Service (Headed by the Surgeon General)
United States Public Health Service is headed by Surgeon General of the United States.- University Associates
- University of Alabama
- University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
- University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center
- University of California San Diego
- University of California San Diego School of Medicine
- University of California San Francisco
- University of Colorado
- University of Houston
- University of Illinois (at Champaign-Urbana)
- University of Michigan
- University of Minnesota
- University of Nebraska
- University of North Carolina
- University of Oregon
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Southern California
- University of Utah
- University of Wisconsin
- VA Wadsworth Hospital Center
- Veterans Administration Medical Center
- Wesleyan University
- World Health Organization (Concerned with global public health)
International organization concered with public health worldwide- Yale University
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
- Subject
- advertising
- alcohol
- anti-smoking advocacy
- asbestos
- asbestos synergy (synergy between tobacco and asbestos)
- asthma
- cancer
- cardiovascular disease
- chronic bronchitis
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- cigarette smoke
- diseases
- emphysema
- epidemiology
- female
- health effects
- heart disease
- heavy smoker
- hypertension (high blood pressure)
- infant
- low birth weight
- lung cancer
- lung disease
- mainstream smoke
- male
- mortality
- mouse skin painting
- non-smoker
- occupational activity
- oral cancer
- pathology
- peer influence
- Pharmacology (Effects)
- pollution
- pregnancy
- public health program
- public policy
- reproductive system
- secondhand smoke
- smoking cessation
- smoking intervention
- Surgeon General
- tobacco allergy
- underage smoking
- alcohol
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Stock Number 01 7, OMIp021g..0
SMOKING
and
HEALTH
a report of the Surgeon General
0
The Health Consequences of Smoking.
p The Behavioral Aspects of Smoking
p Education and' Prevention
DHEW Publication No (PHS) i 79-50066'
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH; EDUCATION, AND WELFARE
Public Health Service
Office, of the Assistant Secretary, for Health
Office on Smoking and Health
o3ssss38
THE SECRETARY'S FOREWORD
On January 11, 1964, the first Surgeon General''s Report on Smoking
and Health was published. It created' an instant-and jiustified-
worldwide reaction; For the reporta d'ocument of impeccable scientific
authority, established a frightening link between cigarette smoking
and several dlsabling or fatal diseases.
The report established that cigarette smoking is causally
related to lung cancer in men.
It revealed that cigarette smoking is directly related to il2ness
and death from heart disease and other ailments; thatt
cigarette smoking is the leading contributory cause of death
from chronic bronchitis and~ other lung disorders.
The report, in short, pronounced cigarette smoking a health
hazard of sufficient importance in the United States to:
warrant remedial'act'ion.
Today, 15 years after the original report, we publish a new Surgeon~
General's Report on Smoking and Health. This book is more than a
compendium of new data confirming the conclusions of the originall
report. For this document reveals, with dramatic clarity, that cigarette
smoking is even more dangerous-indeedy far more dangerous-than
was supposed in 1964.
The new report, for example, presents sobering information
about a subject not extensively treated in the 1964 report:
women and~ smoking. Among other things, the evidence
suggests that mothers who smoke during pregnancy face the
possibility of creating long-term, irreversible effects on their
babies: And as smoking levels among women go up, diseasee
and death rates go up also: lung cancer has inereased fivefold
among women since 1955. Women who smoke like men die like
men who smoke.
The report sheds new light on dramatically increased risks to
smokers exposed to certain occupational hazards. Workers in~
the asbestos, rubber, coal, textile, uranium, and chemical
industries, among others, face these risks.
And the new report, unlike its predecessor, takes up the
subject of smoking among children. The percentage of girls
aged' 12 to 14 who smoke, for example, has increased eightfold
since 1968. Among the age group 13 to 19, there are now 6
million regular smokers. One hundred~ thousand children
under 13 are regular smokers.
i
comprise a report on the health consequences of smoking, which the
Secretary of Health, Education, an6 Welfare is required~ by law to
submit to Congress each year. The remaining chapters deal with
behavioral aspects of smoking and with education and preventiom
This report is, in my judgment, a major contribution to knowledge
about smoking and health-and a major resource for physicians, public
health officials, educators and others who are concerned with
advancing the nation's health through a sound strategy of prevention:
Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Secretary
Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare
January 11, 1979
v
Having established the clear danger of smoking and the legitimacy
of smoking as a public health issue, however, a final question remains:
How much can government usefully do to publicize the hazards of
cigarette smoking; to encourage citizens to stop smoking-or not to
start?
Cigarette smoking, after all, is not like most other environmental
hazards: It cannot be curbed simply through~massive public and privatee
expenditures, as in the case of water pollution abatement, on which
$265 billion will be spent in the next 10 years. Cigarette smoking is not
subject to the same kinds of government regulation and' control that
are now used, for example, to check the emission of toxic substances
into the environment. These hazards can be dealt with through
straightforward programs of abatement and st'rict regulation. When it
comes to smoking, there is, of course, a role to be played by regulation
and by economic and other incent'ives. But in a free society, research
and; education must be the major tools of any public-health program to
deal with smoking.
So the stepped-up smoking-and~health program launched by the
Department of Healths Education, and Welfare a year ago is primarily
one of research, education, and persuasion. I described; it last year, in
testimony before the House Subcommittee on Health and! the.
Environment, in these words:
'Make no mistake, our efforts are to reduce smoking. But they are
efforts grounded in persuasion and information that appeal to the
common sense of our citizens. They are not efforts based~ on~ coercion
and scare tactics. I have the greatest empathy for the millions of
Americans who: want to stop smoking, but who find it very, very
difficult to do so...
'...If our citizens...are given all the facts from government, or other
sources, and still d'o not wish to give up: a personal habit, however
hazardous, then, except for protecting the rights of non-smokers, I
think government can properliy d'o no more.'
How successful~ can such efforts be? Quite successful', to judge from
the record:
Today, more than 30 million Americans are ex-smokers. This does
not include the number of people who, after consid'ering the risks,
chose never to take up the habit; they must also number in the millions.
The number of cigarettes consumed per person in the United States
has declined from 4,345 in 1963 to 3,965 in 1978. In fact, per capita
cigarette consumption this past year is at its lowest level in 20 years.
Thesefact's, without a doubt,arein~ large part due to efforts by
public health agencies and voluntary groups to inform the public about
the risks of smoking.
iu
This document is significant for another reason It demolishes the
claims made by cigarette manufacturers and a few others fifteen years
ago and t'od'ay: that the scientific evidence was sketchy; that no link
between smoking and cancer was "proven." Those claims, empty then,
are utterly vacuous now. Fifteen years of additionall research
overwhelmingly ratify the original scientific indictment of smoking as
a contributor to disease and premature death. Ind'eed; even the
cigarette industry's own research from January 1964 throu& Decem-
ber 1973, at a cost of approximately $15 million, confirmed the lethal
dangers of cigarette smoking. Today there can be no doubt that
smoking is truly slow-motion suicide.
In truth, the attack uponi the scientific and' medical evidence about
smoking, is little more than an attack upon science itself: an attack
upon the epidemiological, clinical, and experimental research disci-
plines upon whichi these conclusions are: based. Like every attack upon
science by vested interests, fromi Aristotle's day to Galileo's to our own,
these attacks collapse of their own weight.
But why, the reader may nevertheless ask, should government
involve itself in an effort to broadcast these facts and to discourage
cigarette smoking?
Why, indeed? For one reason, because the consequences of smoking
are not simply personal and'privat'e. Those consequences, economic and
medical, affect not only the smoker, but every taxpayer.
When we consider two major nationall problems of health policy, we
find that cigarette smoking intensifies and complicates each one.
First among these problems is the spiraling cost of health care.
Health care costs nationwide now amount to $205 billion a; year-of
which the Federal Government pays $59 billion. Smoking accounts for
an estimated $5 to $8 billion in health care expenses; not to mention the
cost of lost productivity, wages, and absenteeism caused by smoking-
related illness; an annual cost estimated at $12 to $18 billion.
No person, given these staggering costs, can reasonably conclude
that smoking is simply a private concern; it is demonstrably a public
healthiproblem also.
A second major problem is that our health care system overempha-
sizes expensive medical technology and institutional care, while it
largely neglects preventive medicine and health promotion.
Certainly, if the government is to shift its health strategy toward
preventive rather than merely curative medicine, it cannot ignore
smoking. For snwking is the largest preventable cause of death in
America. When demographers look at death rates for diseases related
to cigarette smoking, they identify 84,000 deaths each year from lung
cancer, 22,000 deaths from other cancers, up to 225,000 deaths from
cardiovascular disease, and more than 19,000 deaths from chronic
pulmonary disease-every single one of them~ related to smoking. That
is why smoking is Public Health Enemy N'umber One in America.
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These efforts are not mere publicity;, the record suggests that every
timegovernment and voluntary agencies have intensified their efforts
to: spotlight the risks of smoking, more smokers have given up: the
habit and more have decided not to take it up.
Moreover, we know from surveys of public opinion and attitudes
that the great majority of smokers-90 percent-have either tried to
quit smoking or would probably quit, if only they could find an
effective way to do so.
These people need help.
So; too, do millions of children an& young people who must have the
facts if they are to make a truly informed choice whether to smoke.
Indeed, it is children who are the main focus of our efforts to inform
and' persuade: It is not'hing short of a national tragedy that so much
death and disease are wrought by a powerful habit often taken up by
unsuspecting children1'ured by seductive multimillion dollar cigarette-
advertising campaigns.
This new Report of the Surgeon Generali typifies the Department's
approach to the issue of smoking and healtK It is based on scientific
resear& Its purpose is to provide facts. Its persuasive power is in the
weight cf the scientific evidence.
We set out t'o publish it for three reasons: First, we wished to bring
together new information on smoking and health which has accumulat-
ed in the 1'5 years since SurgeonGeneral Luther Terry released the
epochall report of 1964.
Second; we wishedi to extend the area of inquiry into smoking and
healthi beyond medicine into the fields of education and behavioral
science. For many of the: remaining unanswered questions about
smoking and health are in these latter fields. We have some evidence
for example, that women smokers have more trouble giving up,
smoking than men-but why? Some observers believe.t'hat women are
more concerned than men about gaining weight wheni they stop
smoking. But in fact we do not know; the answers to that and other
question& about smoking must be pursued through future behaviorali
research.
Third and finally, we wished to provide a firm base of knowledge on
which health agencies throughout this nation-and the world-can
build their efforts to reduce cigarette-related death and disability. For
the problem of cigarette smoking is not just domestic; it is worldwide.
Smokers in the United States consume 615 billion cigarettes a year;;
worldwide, the consumption of cigarettes approaches three trillion
each year.
This, thens is the report: a compendium of 22 scientific papers on
smoking and health, commissioned by the Surgeon General of the
Public Health~ Service, compiled by 12 agencies of the Depart'ment of
Health, Educat'ion,, and Welfare, and reviewed by scientists who are
recognized experts in their fields of inquiry. Thirteen of the papers
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;u1d many other influences are encouraging young people to take up
<mukinl;,
Tlieconsideration of what is meant by "adequately informed" is a
Sciuntific and public health~policyproblem.
As this report shows, our knowledge of the relevant facts regarding
the health hazards of cigarette smoking'has increased manyfold since
19Ei'-3. And efforts at adequately informing the public have had' some
~uccess. According to survey data (Chapter 16), a: majority of smokers,
both adultsand teenagers, respond affirmatively to questions about
the health hazards of smoking andt'he desirability of quitting. Yet,
perhaps because nicotine is a powerful addictive drug, millions of
smokers seem~ unable to translate this information into personal action.
Further, we know so little about how to~ prevent smoking among
children and teenagers that the numbers of new smokers have
remainedl virtually constant.
Earlfier in this preface we not'e& changes that have taken~place in: the
composition of the smoking, population, in smoking behavior, im the
character of the: cigarette itself, and in~ smoking risks. We must take
these changes into account in our efforts to inform. If we can now
identify groups of people who are at high risk, what intervent'ions can
~ve design to reach them? Have previous educational efforts been too
broadly based? Do the changes in the nature of the cigarette argue for
a shift in emphasis, from less hazardous cigarettes to less hazardous
smoking? Are there specific instances where the weight of thee
scientific evid'ence an6 the magnitude of the health problem require
action by society, other than merely imparting information?
In addressing these questions, we must be sure we are active rather
than reactive in our approach. The hazards of cigarette smoking have
been established and the question has turned to what society's response
to~these hazards should be. If this report is successfuls it will encourage
the medical and public health communities to continue their search for
what the Advisory Committee: 15 years ago defined as "appropriate
remedial action."
Julius B. Richmond, M.D.
Assistant Secretary for Health
and Surgeon General
January 11, 1979
xv
