TOBACCO AND HEALTH - SOCIETAL CHALLENGE

FOR more than a quarter of a century, a wealth of epidemiologic evidence has causatively linked tobacco smoking with lung cancer.1 2 3 4 5 Decades ago, smoking was shown to increase the risk of premature heart attack and was recognized as a major factor in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.6 7 8 9 10 Cancers of the mouth, larynx, esophagus, pancreas, kidney and bladder have also been linked with excessive use of tobacco.11 12 13 14 15 16 Furthermore, the incidence of lung cancer is rising among women17 — a development that we predicted on the basis of data published in the Journal in 1956.18 In view of the epidemiologic, biochemical and purely. © 1979, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.