For lung cancer in particular, the Committee discussed a range of different types of evidence in great detail, responding to alternative explanations for the high risk of lung cancer in smokers, other than smoking, and addressing inconsistencies in the total body of evidence.
However, one initiative that had a measurable impact on the prevalence of smoking was initiated by John F. Reynolds Tobacco Company internal memo as "the way we won these cases, to paraphrase Gen. The WHO Expert Committee on Addiction-Producing Drugs observed that for cigarette smoking, evidence was lacking at the time for a typical abstinence syndrome.
Additionally, although many physicians had quit earlier, those who quit before were more likely to cite physical symptoms as the reason while, afterformer smokers were more likely to cite scientific evidence of harm as their reason for quitting Meighan and Weitman This assumption is consistent with concomitant theories such as the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behavior that demonstrate a strong link between intentions and behavior Ajzen ; Armitage and Conner The study showed that heavy smokers were dying of lung cancer at a rate 5 to 16 times higher than that of similar people who were not smokers.
Lack of a firm commitment to abstain from smoking is considered to be a cognitive susceptibility to smoking Spelman et al. The effectiveness of antitobacco media campaigns discussed in detail in Chapter 6 also supports this model for the effectiveness of protobacco advertising and promotion, as antitobacco media operate through the same channels.
This conclusion has been buttressed by a multitude of scientific and governmental reports, and the strength of the evidence for causality continues to grow. Scientific Judgment and the Report By the late s, the amassing evidence on smoking and lung cancer called for public health action.
He reinvigorated the regular reports of the Surgeon General on smoking and health, involving dozens of outside experts as authors and peer reviewers to produce a page report in and the first report to address passive smoking in see Chapter 3.
InConnecticut enacted the first statute to restrict smoking in restaurants. Smoking in the movies can influence both social-contextual and cultural-environmental streams. This study is valuable because, once adult smoking is established as a result of nicotine addiction, it is unlikely that one would see large changes in smoking behavior as a function of year-to-year changes in the level of advertising.