ANTI-SMOKING EFFORTS HAVE SAVED EIGHT MILLION LIVES-WDTV
Fifty years ago, the Surgeon Generals office made a bombshell announcement. It was the first time the U.S. acknowledged the relationship between smoking and both lung and heart diseases.
When this report was first released back in 1964, it was the first time a Surgeon General said that smokers had a 70% greater chance of death, and were more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers. This landmark report launched one of the biggest public health campaigns in U.S. History, including everything from warning labels on cigarettes to anti-smoking laws.
In the 50th anniversary report health officials estimate that since the first Surgeon General's report was made, they've added up to 20 years of life for eight million Americans.
According to our local health officials here in the Mountain State smoking continues to be a top risk factor for the state's number one killer of heart disease.