NIH study examines the impact of tobacco control policies and programs, and the potential for further reduction in lung cancer deaths

Twentieth-century tobacco control programs and policies were responsible for preventing more than 795,000 lung cancer deaths in the United States from 1975 through 2000, according to an analysis funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

If all cigarette smoking in this country had ceased following the release of the first Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health in 1964, a total of 2.5 million people would have been spared from death due to lung cancer in the 36 years following that report, according to the analysis.  The results of this study were published online March 14, 2012, in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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