Cigarette Smoking and Body Weight

IT has been 25 years since the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health released its landmark report summarizing what was then known about the health consequences of cigarette smoking. That widely publicized document directed the attention of Americans to the dangers of smoking and launched public health efforts to reduce tobacco use. In the ensuing quarter century, remarkable progress has been made against this deadly habit, with dramatic changes in public knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Among adults, the prevalence of smoking fell from 40 percent in 1965 to 29 percent in 1987.1 Nearly half the adults alive who . . .