‘At the best, the probabilities are that some combination of constituents of smoke will be found conducive to the onset of cancer or to create an environment in which cancer is more likely to occur.’ 1963.

‘Carbon monoxide will become increasingly regarded as a serious health hazard for smokers . . . Additional evidence of smoke-dose related incidence of some diseases associated with smoking has been published. But generally this has long ceased to be an area for scientific controversy.’ 1978.

‘The smoking of tobacco continues to be one of the subjects requiring study in the lung cancer problem, as do many other agents and influences in modern living. Science does not yet know enough about any suspected factors to judge whether they may operate alone, whether they may operate in conjunction with others, or whether they may affect or be affected by factors of whose existence science is not yet aware.’ 1967.

‘. . . we believe there is sound evidence to conclude that the statement ‘cigarettes cause cancer’ is not a statement of fact but merely an hypotheses.’ 1971.

’Cigarette smoking has not been scientifically established to be a cause of chronic diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, or emphysema. Nor has it been shown to affect pregnancy outcome adversely.’ 1983.

Surgeon General: ‘Cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in men: the magnitude of the effect of cigarette smoking far outweighs all other factors. The data for women, though less extensive point in the same direction.’

‘Cigarette smoking is the most important of the causes of chronic bronchitis in the United
States, and increases the risk of dying from chronic bronchitis.’
‘Male cigarette smokers have a higher death rate from coronary artery disease than nonsmoking males, but it is not clear that the association has causal significance.’

‘Cigarette smoking is a significant factor in the causation of cancer of the larynx (and) an association exists between cigarette smoking and cancer of the urinary bladder in men.’ 1964.

Surgeon General: ‘Tobacco use is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease; stroke; aortic aneurism; peripheral vascular disease; chronic obstructive broncho-pulmonary disease; cancers of the lung, lip, larynx, oral cavity, oesoph-agus, urinary bladder, and pancreas; and gastrointestinal disorders such as peptic ulcer disease . . . In addition, maternal smoking during pregnancy retards foetal growth.’ 1972.

Surgeon General ‘Smoking is responsible for more than one of every six deaths in the
United States. Smoking remains the single most important preventable cause of death in our society.’ 1989.

‘Evidence relating ETS to health effects is scanty, contradictory and often fundamentally flawed… more and better research needs to be done.’

‘Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke has not been shown to cause lung cancer in nonsmokers… such exposure has not been shown to impair the respiratory or cardiovascular health of non-smoking adults or children, or to exacerbate preexisting disease in these groups, or to cause ‘allergic’ symptoms on a physiological basis.’

Surgeon General: ‘An atmosphere contaminated with tobacco smoke can contribute to the discomfort of many individuals.’

‘The level of carbon monoxide attained in experiments using rooms filled with tobacco smoke had been shown to be equal to , and at times to exceed, the legal limits for maximum air pollution permitted for ambient air quality.’

‘Other components of tobacco smoke, such as particulate matter and the oxides of nitrogen, have been shown in various concentrations to affect adversely animal pulmonary and cardiac structure and function. The extent of the contribution of these substances to illness in humans exposed to the concentrations present in an atmosphere contaminated with tobacco smoke is not presently known.’ 1972.

’This review leads to three major conclusions:
1. Involuntary smoking is a cause of disease, including lung cancer, in healthy non-smokers
2. The children of parents who smoke compared with the children of nonsmoking parents have an increased frequency of respiratory infections, increased respiratory symptoms, and slightly smaller rates of increase in lung function as the lung matures
3. The simple separation of smokers and non-smokers within the same air space may reduce, but does not eliminate, the exposure of nonsmokers to environmental tobacco smoke.’ 1986.