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. He announced that HEW would “place the weight of its scientific authority behind programs to inform the they public — especially the young — about why they should not smoke and how can quit if they wish. As the chief health officer of government, I have the duty to see that we do just that.”
- Within weeks, Califano’s efforts were being undermined by President Jimmy Carter, who traveled to North Carolina to assure tobacco famers that the government would make cigarette smoking “even safer than it is today.” As Califano’s campaign continued to gain momentum, and after HEW published the most comprehensive indictment yet of cigarette smoking in its 1979 Surgeon General’s Report, Carter fired Califano. There was little doubt that the main reason was his fervent anti-smoking stance.
- 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 by Maitland Zane
San Francisco Chronicle
1979
HEW’s Califano Finds His Anticigaret Drive Burns Up Many People
Article by Rich Jaroslovsky and Douglas R. Sease
Wall Street Journal
May 1, 1978
Califano Crusade Goes Up In Smoke
Article by 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, Jr.
New York State Journal of Medicine
1985
James J. Kilpatrick
Opinion Column
1979
Bill Garner
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
1978
Jerry Robinson
Life with Robinson comic strip
1978
Ed Gamble
Nashville Banner
1978
Tony Auth
The Philadelphia Inquirer
1979
Herb Block
The Washington Post
1979
Bill DeOre
Dallas Morning News
1978
Draper Hill (1935-2009)
The Detroit News
1979