Joseph Califano, Jr.
- On January 11, 1978, the fourteenth anniversary of the publication of the first Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph Califano, Jr. launched the federal government’s first campaign to prevent teenagers from taking up cigarette smoking and to encourage existing smokers to stop.
- Until 1975 Califano had smoked as many as three packs of cigarettes a day, but he kicked the habit at the request of his then 11-year-oid son, Joe. “It was September, and I asked him what he wanted for his birthday.” he told The New York Times. “He said, ‘I want you to stop smoking.’ ‘No, seriously,’ I said. ‘What do you want for your birthday and for Christmas?’ And he repeated that wish.“Joe’s now a surgical oncologist and director of the Head and Neck Cancer at the University of California at San Diego.”
(Personal communication with Joseph Califano, Jr, June 13, 2019)
Women Who Smoke Featuring Joseph Califano
News Story
CBS News
1978
Joseph Califano, Jr. Interviewed by Alan Blum, MD
Interview
1985
Joseph Califano Jr. on Surgeon General Luther Terry
Video Clip
50th Anniversary Symposium on Smoking and Health
2014
Califano Dares Tobacco Industry
Article
Maitland Zane
San Francisco Chronicle
1979
HEW’s Califano Finds His Anticigaret Drive Burns Up Many People
Article
Wall Street Journal
May 1, 1978
Califano Crusade Goes Up In Smoke
Article
Rudy Abramson
The Los Angeles Times
October 12, 1978
Califano Criticized But Virginia Slims Slammed
Press Release
Doctors Ought to Care
January 10, 1978
Obstacles to Preventing Teenage Smoking
Interview
Alan Blum and Joseph Califano
New York State Journal of Medicine
1985
Califano Jousts with Tobacco Industry
Bill Deore
“You’ve Come a Long Way Baby!”
Bill Garner
The Commercial Appeal
1978
“It Proves Smoking Is The Most Dangerous This Anyone Can Do Today!”
Jerry Robinson
Life with Robinson
1978
Dangerous to Your Civil Liberties
Edward Gamble
Nashville Banner
1978
Tobacco Industry & Califano
Tony Auth
The Washington Post
1979
They Keep Talking About Life and Death!
Herb Block
The Washington Post
January 12, 1979