MOMENT IN TIME U.S. Surgeon-General issues smoking warning The Globe and Mail - Morning updates - January 11 2018 - by Carine Abouseif January 11, 1964: On a winter weekend in the smoky homes of the United States, the story "hit the country like bombshell." That's how U.S. Surgeon-General Luther Terry would later describe a report he published that weekend, declaring that smoking causes illness and death; it noted correlations with chronic bronchitis, emphysema, heart disease and lung cancer. The statement – put out on Saturday to avoid a blow to the stock market – wasn't necessarily the first of its kind, but it was the first to have a dramatic effect on the industry. In 1965, Congress required all cigarette packs to carry warning labels, and, by 1970, tobacco advertising on television and radio was banned. In the years that followed, millions of Americans would stub out, but it took Canadian smokers another decade to begin quitting in large numbers. While doctors and politicians in the 1960s put forward recommendations to curb consumption, many, such as banning ads, only became law in the 1980s. From 1981 to 1986, the average smoker had 700 fewer cigarettes a year. For the first time in Canadian history, smoking entered a period of sustained decline. -- Steven H MacDowall Join my Blog ‘The Thursday File’ every week. My next posting > January 18, 2018 > The Thursday File #707 - sign up
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