784 - The Inside Story of the 1964 Surgeon Generals Report That Changed How Americans Viewed Smoking

Published: July 31, 2024, 10 a.m.

About this episode:

In 1964, an advisory committee to the Surgeon General issued a report on smoking and disease that was so damning, it had to be released with cloak-and-dagger preparations on a Saturday so as not to disrupt the stock market. 60 years later, the report remains one of the most important scientific documents of the 20th century. Today: the inside history of a committee and a report that changed the trajectory of tobacco use in America\u2014a report that almost didn\u2019t happen.

Guest:

Donald Shopland\xa0is one of the original staff members of the Surgeon General\u2019s Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health. It was his first job out of high school. Since then, Shopland has had a career as a public health advisor in the field of smoking and tobacco and has assisted with dozens of Surgeon General\u2019s reports on links between smoking and disease. He is the author of\xa0Clearing the Air: The Untold Story of the 1964 Report on Smoking and Health, available for free\xa0here.

Host:

Dr. Josh Sharfstein is vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a faculty member in health policy, a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland\u2019s Health Department.

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