A leap forward in human health
On Tuesday, we noted that fire fatalities have dropped by two-thirds since the 1970s, a striking statistic.
Here’s another giant leap forward in human health that is taken for granted today: Adult cigarette smoking has dropped by nearly two-thirds since 1964.
It’s been estimated that more than 8 million premature deaths have been prevented as a result.
Smoking rose steadily in the 20th century, peaking at 45 percent of all adults in 1955 — including half of all physicians!
By 2019, adult cigarette use had dropped to less than 16 percent.
It’s hard to believe how fashionable cigarette smoking was by the 1960s. TV personalities like Edward R. Murrow and Rod Serling were always seen with cigarettes dangling from their fingers (both died of smoking-related diseases).
Most of the people in The Mercury newsroom smoked in the 1970s. I didn't, but my clothes still reeked of smoke when I came home.
Likewise, my wife avoided the faculty room at West End (now Barth) Elementary School because it was usually full of cigarette smoke from teachers on their break.
Even Pottstown Memorial Medical Center allowed smoking.
The campaign against smoking gradually intensified after the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report officially linked smoking to lung cancer and other diseases.
Cigarette ads were banned from television and radio in 1971. Workplace bans on smoking became more prevalent in the late 1980s. Airlines banned smoking in 1990.
Owen J. Roberts was the first area district to ban smoking, in 1988, followed by Pottstown (where three board members routinely lit up at meetings prior to the ban).
Student campaigns at Pottsgrove and Perkiomen Valley high schools eventually embarrassed board members into banning smoking.
Today, most states and communities have enacted bans on smoking in workplaces, bars and restaurants. Most schools ban smoking on their campuses, indoors and out.
True, 34 million adults are still smoking, so we have much yet to do. But the decline in smoking has been a huge improvement in society.