2008-04-29 21:22:49 - Contrary to the obituary in today's New York Times, former Surgeon General Dr. William H. Stewart did not "put the first health warnings on cigarette packs," notes the public interest law professor who caused the first decline in US smoking by getting free time for antismoking messages on radio and TV.

"Although Dr. Stewart urged health warnings, he had no authority to order them," notes law professor John Banzhaf of George Washington University. In fact, the story is somewhat more complicated, he explains.

Following the release of the first US Surgeon General's report by Dr. Luther Terry, the Federal Trade Commission [FTC] -- which did have the authority -- began moving towards

ordering clear and strong health warnings on cigarette packs.

However the tobacco industry persuaded Congress to step in, force the FTC to back off, and then passed a statute requiring only the weakest possible warnings: "SMOKING MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH."

Unfortunately, something that Stewart could not have anticipated -- but which Congress should have foreseen -- occurred. Years later the major tobacco companies were successful in defending themselves from law suits claiming that they failed to adequately disclose the dangers of smoking by arguing that they put on their packs exactly the warning Congress had required.

None of this should detract from Stewart's legacy, however, says Banzhaf. He started the custom, which still continues today, of annual reports on smoking from the Surgeon General.

These reports -- on the many dangers of smoking, on the addictive nature of the drug nicotine, and on the deaths caused by secondhand tobacco smoke -- have been invaluable in the war on smoking, and have helped reduce the incidence of smoking to an unprecedented low level.

Banzhaf is Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), America' first antismoking organization.

PROF. JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2013 H St., NW
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 659-4310 (703) 527-8418
ash.org