U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry shocked Americans by announcing that cigarette smoking is a major cause of lung cancer, throat cancer and chronic bronchitis. Bettmann via Getty ImagesSixty years ago, about 70 million Americans smoked tobacco. An estimated 42 percent of adults identified themselves as smokers in 1965, and advertisements for cigarettes were impossible to avoid. Tobacco products were stylish and healthy, manufacturers insisted, with Camel claiming its cigarettes dont get your wind and Old Gold saying its were fresh as mountain air.So it came as a shock to the American public when, on January 11, 1964, their surgeon general appeared on television saying that smoking tobacco leads to disease and death.Luther Terry, appointed surgeon general by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, had just reviewed the results of a 14-month study by a committee of top-notch medical scientists. Their conclusions, presented in a 387-page report, were that cigarette smoking is a major cause of lung cancer, throat cancer and chronic bronchitis.In short, the committee says if you smoke cigarettes, you increase your chances of dying early, CBS News reported at the time. The sooner you start, the more you smoke, the more you inhale, the worse your chances are.Smoking: "A health hazard of sufficient importance"Watch on The ten-man committee, made up of five smokers and five non-smokers, took questions from reporters at a taped press conference announcing their findings. They pointed out that 41,000 Americans died annually from lung cancermore than the annual number of automobile accident fatalities, which was about 38,000. Overall, about 752,000 Americans died of cigarette-associated causes in 1962 alone, they said. Terry stated clearly that hed advise anybody smoking cigarettes to quit.This connection between cigarettes and cancer wasnt exactly new: Doctors in America had been paying attention to smokings pulmonary effects for decades. As lung surgeon Alton Ochsner wrote in 1939, Inhaled smoke, constantly repeated over a long period of time, undoubtedly is a source of chronic irritation to the bronchial mucosa. Researchers also noted an increase in lung cancer cases, but the incline was commonly attributed to other types of inhaled toxins, like automobile exhaust, tar fumes and factory smog.As far back as the 1920s, researchers had recorded the smoking habits of people who developed lung cancer and compared them to cancer-free people. They found strong associations between smoking and cancer, so researchers followed up, beginning more studies in the early 1950sthe research that eventually led to the surgeon generals report. A warning label on a package of Marlboro cigarettes Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.01964 marked the governments arrival to the non-smoking movement. A year after the top doctors announcement, American smokers arrived in stores to find their cigarette boxes stamped with a mandatory warning label: Caution: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health.That weakly worded caution strengthened over the years as public health officials grew firmer on their stance that tobacco causes cancer and many other health problems. Now, the Food and Drug Administration prescribes 11 different warning labels for tobacco products, complemented by deliberately frightening images. Smoking reduces blood flow to the limbs, which can require amputation, the labels declare. Smoking causes head and neck cancer.Though it took decades for the number of American smokers to significantly decreasea trend challenged by a 1980s uptick in youth smokingsmoking rates have fallen each year since the surgeon generals first warning. Between 1941 and 1974, surveyor Gallup annually asked Americans if theyd smoked a cigarette in the past week. At least four in ten responded yes in each survey. As of 2024, that number is down to one.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Advertisements, American History, Cancer, Disease, Disease and Illnesses, Health, On This Day in History, Tobacco