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Cigarettes lost their
glamour in 1964, the year the U.S. government issued its landmark report
on smoking. Confirming private studies, the Surgeon General’s findings,
compiled by ten independent researchers, implied that smoking constituted
a major cause of lung cancer and heart disease. Less than two years after
the report’s release, the U.S. Congress ordered that warnings against
the dangers of smoking appear on all cigarette packages sold domestically.
Great Britain soon followed suit; by 1972, West Germany, the United States
and Canada had banned television advertising of cigarettes. Many European
countries also began imposing steep taxes on cigarettes.
Since the 1950s, scientists
had already begun linking tobacco to disease. By then, lung cancer, previously
unheard of at the turn of the century, had become a big killer. Its increased
incidence corresponded roughly to the rise of smoking’s popularity. Which
boomed during World War I, when tobacco manufacturers supplied troops
with free cigarettes. During World War II, the popularity of smoking again
received a similar boost, when doctors even encouraged smoking as a way
to calm nerves. As the hazards emerged, tobacco companies, which had once
recommended the beneficial properties of their product, began making defensive
claims. As early as 1949, an advertising campaign for Camel, a popular
brand, featured anonymous "noted throat specialists" unable
to document a single case of Camel-caused throat irritation.
In the United Sates,
at least, the Surgeon General’s warning was effective as the numbers of
smokers plummeted. In the mid-1960s, over 40 percent of American adults
smoked. By the nineties, the proportion had decreased to under 25 percent.
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