The American Lung Association has been making strides to create a tobacco-free future. Listed below are many victories and milestones!
Does tobacco cause cancer?
Did you know that combustible cigarettes contain over 5000 chemicals, with around 70 that are linked to various cancers? This means that people who use tobacco products or who’re regularly around environmental tobacco smoke (secondhand smoke) possess an increased risk of developing cancer in any form. As the leading cause of cancer and death from cancer, many ex-smokers turn to e-cigs to quit combustibles cigarettes, limit their nicotine intake, and wave goodbye to tobacco for good.
The American Lung Association’s tobacco timeline
1954: Richard Doll and A. Bradford Hill published an article in the British Medical Journal confirming the link between smoking and lung cancer.
1961-1964: The American Lung Association wrote to President Kennedy to highlight an increase in evidence to support that smoking was a health hazard. The report, entitled Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Publish Health Service, was later published publically in 1964, confirming a link between smoking and lung cancer.
1966: Health warnings first appear on combustible cigarette packs: “Caution—Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health.”
1975: The Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act went into effect as the first statewide law in the nation to require separate smoking areas in public places.
1984: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves nicotine gum to help people quit smoking.
1987: Congress prohibits smoking on domestic flights of less than two hours to take effect in 1988.
1990: San Luis Obispo, California becomes the first city in the world to completely eliminate smoking in public buildings, bars, and restaurants.
1993: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a report concluding that secondhand smoke is responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths each year in nonsmoking adults and impairs the respiratory health of hundreds of thousands of children. It was entitled, Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Lung Cancer and Other Disorders.
1995: Nicotine is declared a drug and combustible cigarettes start the process of becoming regulated drug delivery devices.
2006: The Surgeon General releases The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke. The 40+ year debate is over and any form or level of secondhand smoke is now deemed harmful.
2008: The U.S. Public Health Service releases an important update on treating tobacco use and dependence. This guideline contains recommendations for doctors on how to help their patients quit tobacco, including seven types of medications and three types of counseling.
2010: Marketing restrictions on youth access take effect prohibiting misleading health descriptors.
2015: A new report entitled, Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age for Purchasing Tobacco Products found that raising the minimum age to 21-years-old will significantly reduce youth smoking initiation and rates. Hawaii is the first state to raise the sales age on tobacco products.
2017: Tobacco companies run corrective statements in print newspapers and on TV about the deception and fraud surrounding the dangers of smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke over the past 50 years.
2020: E-cigarette companies were required to submit a premarket review to the FDA.
2021: FDA is still going through all of the applications. The Vuse Vapor e-cig is the first device to be approved as a smoking cessation device.
Now that we’ve answered your question, “Does tobacco cause cancer” and laid out a variety of resources pointing to it over 70 years, are you ready to make the switch?
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