The men who tried to warn us about smoking

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2019

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

British doctors produced an alarming report in 1962 warning that 1 in 3 smokers would die before the age of 65. The doctors suggested restrictions on advertising and on smoking in public places but the UK government did little except launch a health education campaign.

Credit: Interviews with Sir George Godber and Charles Fletcher courtesy of the Medical Sciences Video Archive, part of a project run by Oxford Brookes University and the Royal College of Physicians.

Photo: 1956 (Thurston Hopkins/Picture Post/Getty Images)

Transcript

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1:04.8	Hello and thank you for downloading this witness history podcast from the BBC World Service
1:10.4	with me Claire Bowes. Today we're remembering one of the most important moments in
1:15.2	the history of cigarette smoking. In 1962 a group of UK doctors warned
1:21.4	people of the direct link between smoking and lung cancer, adding
1:26.5	that smokers were more likely to die before the age of 65.
1:31.0	The association wasn't new, but the startling figures were, and the doctors wanted government to act.
1:38.0	Today the Royal College of Physicians published their report on smoking and lung cancer.
	...

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