8 Million Lives Saved Since Historic Anti-Smoking Report Released

The historic Surgeon General report, which first linked smoking with cancers and death, has saved over 8 million lives in the U.S., according to a latest study.

Several anti-smoking campaigns were launched following Surgeon General's report released by then-U.S. Surgeon General, Luther Terry in 1964.

About 17.6 million Americans have lost their lives due to smoking in the past 50 years. The toll could have been much higher had it not been for the public health awareness campaigns that began half a century ago.

The current study was conducted by researchers at Yale School of Public Health and their colleagues.

"An estimated 31% of premature deaths were avoided by this effort, but even more encouraging is the steady progress that was achieved over the past half-century, beginning with a modest 11% in the first decade to 48% of the estimate what we would have seen from 2004 to 2012 in the absence of tobacco control," said Theodore R. Holford, professor of biostatistics and member of Yale Cancer Center and first author of the study.

"Today, a 40-year-old man can expect on average to live 7.8 years longer than he would have in 1964, and 30% of that improvement can be attributed to tobacco control. The gains for women have been slightly less, 5.4 years, but tobacco control accounts for 29% of that benefit," Holford said in a news release.

For the study, researchers looked at health records from 1965 to 2009. The team constructed smoking life history for groups of people born after 1890. The smoking history was matched with data on national smoking-related deaths for each group. 

The reconstruction of smoking history helped researchers estimate the number of deaths that could have occurred if the anti-smoking campaign wasn't launched.

Their study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Despite the success of the anti-smoking warning, tobacco use continues to be a major public health hazard in the U.S. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking is related with 440,000 deaths annually.

"Tobacco control has been a great success story for public health. We have essentially cut in half the number of tobacco-related deaths each year compared to what would have occurred in the absence of this effort. This is very encouraging, but the halfway point also means that there is more to be done," said Holford.

The report, released Jan. 11, 1964, made front-page news throughout the U.S. The press then predicted that the report would lead to a temporary decline in number of people who smoked, but wouldn't lead to a change in smoking habits of the Americans.

Since its release, the report has led to several government-led efforts to help people kick the habit. A few of these initiatives include warming on cigarette packs, increased taxation, and reduction in advertising and banning smoking in certain areas.