A Parting Shot at Tobacco

ON SEPTEMBER 13, 1989, I made my last appearance as Surgeon General before the US Congress. I used the occasion to address the one issue with which previous Surgeons General and I have become most closely associated: tobacco and health. In testimony before the Subcommittee on Transportation and Hazardous Substances, Committee on Energy and Commerce, US House of Representatives, I focused my remarks on two topics that this subcommittee had considered in previous hearings: tobacco advertising and children's access to tobacco products. The purpose of this article is to share with a wider audience the comments I made at that hearing. Tobacco Advertising The bill introduced by Subcommittee Chairman Thomas A. Luken (D, Ohio), HR 1250, would eliminate all image-based tobacco advertising (allowing only so-called tombstone advertising). On several occasions during my tenure as Surgeon General, I endorsed proposals that would ban all tobacco advertising and promotion. I certainly support