Surgeon General Smoking And Health Essay

Effectiveness of Surgeon General’s Smoking and Health Report In the early sixties it was quite uncommon for Americans to not smoke cigarettes. In fact, it was considered fashionable and done everywhere, with no restrictions. People were not concerned or necessarily aware of the health risks. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about sixty-six percent of Americans over the age of eighteen smoked cigarettes regularly, this did not include the large amount of teenagers under eighteen who also commonly smoked cigarettes. The tobacco industry was far from the “bad guy”. They were endorsed by doctors, dentists, athletes, and celebrities and even sponsored many popular game shows and cartoons. Shortly after Luther L. Terry was appointed the position of Surgeon General of the United States in 1961 he began to establish the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health. Interestingly enough, the tobacco industry was actually allowed to veto any member the Surgeon General selected if they believed that person did not have an unbiased view on the issue of smoking and health. So, Terry was forced to select a group of scientists who had never publicly expressed an opinion about the relationship between tobacco and health …show more content…
Terry to thank for beginning the process. Since 1964, there have many Surgeon General reports published, and many focused on your health in relation to smoking, but none have gotten as much publicity as Terry’s. It was actually later ranked one of the top news stories in 1964. This publicity was crucial because a Gallup Survey conducted in 1958 found that only forty-four percent of Americans believed smoking caused cancer and other diseases, but after Terry’s report was published this jumped to seventy-eight percent. This statistic alone proves that the report had a huge success in beginning to inform Americans on the actual health risks of smoking that the tobacco companies had not been telling