Smoking and Health

It reported on the negative health effects of tobacco smoking, finding that it was linked to the occurrence of chronic bronchitis, emphysema, heart disease, and lung cancer.

On June 12, 1957, Surgeon General Leroy Burney "declared it the official position of the U.S. Public Health Service that the evidence pointed to a causal relationship between smoking and lung cancer".

[1] A committee of the United Kingdom's Royal College of Physicians issued a report on March 7, 1962,[3] which "clearly indicted cigarette smoking as a cause of lung cancer and bronchitis" and argued that "it probably contributed to cardiovascular disease as well.

It found: In addition, it reported: As did the World Health Organization during this period, but possibly influenced by the fact that they were all smokers themselves,[5] the Committee defined cigarette smoking as a "habituation" rather than an overpowering "addiction".

In addition, the "cold turkey" (or sudden-and-rapid-cessation) method has been found to be the most successful in terms of stopping smoking over long periods of time.