John Parascandola

About the author: John Parascandola is the director of the Office of Public Health History in the Department of Health and Human Services, a branch of the United States Public Health Service.

In the 1930s, the increased incidence of lung cancer compelled scientists and physicians to examine more closely the speculation that smoking caused cancer. Critics countered that other factors, such as pollution, could be responsible for the rise in lung cancer; however, in the 1950s, medical researchers from the United States and Britain defined smoking as a major cause of the rising rates of lung cancer. In the early 1960s, antitobacco activists and public health organizations urged the U.S. government to create an advisory group of experts to study the health effects of smoking. This group, known as the Surgeon...