MORTALITY FROM DISEASES ASSOCIATED WITH SMOKING: UNITED STATES, 1950–64

Abstract

Extensive studies using epidemiological, experimental, and clinical methods have been made on the effects of tobacco on health. In 1962, the Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health appointed by the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service reviewed and evaluated the studies available at that time and presented the results in the report Smoking and Health, issued in 1964. In their report the Advisory Committee weighed the evidence of the relationship of smoking, particularly of cigarettes, to Malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus, and lung and to a number of other diseases. As a result of various activities that were undertaken following the publication of Smoking and Health and the interest in measuring the long-range effects of programs to stop the rise in mortality during the productive years of life from Malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus, and lung and from other diseases linked with cigarette smoking, it was considered desirable to pay special attention to current and future mortality trends from these diseases. In 1966, the National Center for Health Statistics published a reports on mortality associated with smoking, which was designed to lay the foundation for the long-range observation of these trends. This report was divided into two major sections: (1) the trends of mortality from diseases that the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee considered to be causally related to smoking, and (2) the trends of mortality from diseases that the Advisory Committee considered to be associated with but not clearly causally related to smoking. It covered the 1950-64 period.