Study estimates 8 million U.S. deaths prevented since Surgeon General’s 1964 smoking report (CBS News)
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To mark the 50th anniversary of the 1964 first Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, released a theme issue this week on fifty years of tobacco control.
Read a CBS news article about one of the published studies in which researchers estimate from 1964 to 2012, at least 8 million premature, smoking-related deaths were prevented, and each of those eight million people gained, on average, 20 years of life. Even more significant, the study authors estimate that reductions in smoking contributed 30 percent of the increase in U.S. life expectancy from 1964 to 2012.
The historic 1964 Surgeons General’s report was the first major report to link smoking to lung cancer. It was also a critical first step toward reducing smoking rates from close to 50 percent in 1964 to about 18 percent today. Learn more at the Surgeon General’s website by clicking the banner below:
