Report on Smoking and Health

THE BEHAVIORAL ASPECTS OF SMOKING. Norman A. Krasnegor, Ph.D., ed. (Reprint from 1979 Surgeon General s Report on Smoking and Health.)... 

The following passage is an excerpt from a recent introduction to the momentous 1964 Report on Smoking and Health issued by the United States Surgeon General. It discusses the inspiration behind the report and the report s effect on public attitudes toward smoking. 

On several occasions, the U.S. Surgeon General in his periodic reports on smoking and health discussed the relationship between the levels of PAHs in cigarette smoke, their tumorigenic potency to mouse skin, and the observed biological response with CSC in mouse skin-painting bioassays. 

Examination of the chronology of the published reports on phenols in tobacco smoke reveals the escalation (see Table IX.A-6) of the scientific publications/presentations between 1952 and 1964, the year of the Advisory Committee s Report on Smoking and Health to the U.S. Surgeon General (3999). This escalation was similar to but not as extensive as the increase from 1953 to 1964 in the number of presenta-tions/publications pertinent to PAH in tobacco smoke. 

The subject of what evidence is necessary to conclude that an exposure is causally associated with disease has received much discussion over the years. In 1964, the seminal report to the Surgeon General on Smoking and Health [United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW 1964)] published criteia by which to evaluate whether an exposure was causally related to disease. These criteria were consistency, strength of association, specificity of the association, temporal relationship of the association, and coherence of the association. 

Reports presented during the less hazardous cigarette workshop held at the 1967 World Conference on Smoking and Health were published the next year as an NCI monograph edited by Wynder and Hoffmann (4343). Moshy and Halter presented data on the effect of inclusion of experimental RTS in a blend. They wrote (2647a) ... 

Department of Health and Human Services, Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation a Report of the Surgeon General, Centers for Disease Control, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, Rockville, MD, 1992. 

R. G. Gann and co-workers. International Study of the Sublethal Effects of Fire Smoke on Survivability and Health (SEFS) Phase I Final Report, NIST Technical Note 1439, National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Dept, of Commerce, Gaithersburg, Md., Aug. 2001. 

MANAGING THROMOOEMOOLIC EFFECTS. The nurse monitors the patient for signs of thromboembolic effects, such as pain, swelling, tenderness in die extremities, headache, chest pain, and blurred vision. These adverse effects are reported to die primary health care provider. Patients with previous venous insufficiency, who are on bed rest for other medical reasons, or who smoke are at increased risk for tiiromboembolic effects. The nurse encourages the patient to elevate the lower extremities when sitting, if possible, and to exercise the lower extremities by walking. 

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