AMA Takes No Stand Against Smoking

The Unfiltered Truth About Smoking and Health

In 1959 the editor of JAMA, John H. Talbott, MD, rebutted the U.S. Surgeon General, Leroy Burney, MD, who had concluded that there was sufficient evidence of a causal link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. On the heels of the publication in 1962 of Smoking and Health: Summary and Report of The Royal College of Physicians of London on Smoking in relation to Cancer of the Lung and Other Diseases, Senator Maurine Neuberger (Democrat-Oregon) urged the AMA to join other health organizations in taking a strong stand against smoking. When AMA members also urged action in June 1962, the association’s leaders announced plans to appoint a committee to study smoking. The Wall Street Journal reported that the AMA was forced to drop its investigation because it was unable to enlist a sufficient number of qualified physicians and other scientists to conduct it.

Smoking and Health: Summary and Report of The Royal College of Physicians of London on Smoking in relation to Cancer of the Lung and Other Diseases

New York, NY: Pitman Publishing Corporation
1962

“Smoking and Lung Cancer: A Statement of the Public Health Service”

Article by Leroy E. Burney, MD, surgeon general of the Public Health Service, summarizing the data that demonstrated a causal link between smoking and lung cancer
Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 171, no. 13, pages 1829-1837
November 28, 1959

“Smoking and Lung Cancer”

Editorial by John H. Talbott, editor-in-chief of JAMA, stating that the research related to smoking as a cause of lung cancer is insufficient and recommending further research
Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 171, no. 15, page 2104
December 12, 1959

“Smoking as a Cause of Disease”

Smoking and Health: Summary and Report of The Royal College of Physicians of London on Smoking in relation to Cancer of the Lung and Other Diseases, page 43
New York, NY: Pitman Publishing Corporation
1962

Smoke Screen: Tobacco and the Public Welfare

Maurine B. Neuberger
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.
1963

“Cigarette Smoking and Lung Cancer”

Editorial debunking reports linking smoking and lung cancer
Nebraska State Medical Journal, vol. 48, no. 9, page 485
September 1963