Videos

For more than fifty years, the Surgeon General has been reporting about the dangers of smoking and tobacco use. The findings have inspired us to help smokers quit and keep young people from starting smoking in the first place. We know the strategies that work and we are in the forefront of an historic opportunity to end the tobacco epidemic. If we work together, we can save millions of lives.

Over the past year, we’ve celebrated the progress made in the 50 years since the first Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health. In a new video, we’re looking to the next 50 years. Catch the release of the video on July 23, 2015!

In 1964, the Surgeon General’s Report (SGR) on Smoking and Health found that smoking causes lung cancer. Today, we know the impact of smoking on health and well-being is far worse. “Worse Than We Thought” explores the staggering health effects of smoking that are outlined in this year’s 50th anniversary SGR. Twenty million people have died from smoking in the last half century, including 2.5 million nonsmokers who died from diseases caused by exposure to secondhand smoke. SGR fact sheets address smoking and its connection to specific diseases and health conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Cigarette companies have a long history of marketing to youth. “Robbing the Future” explores the various ways the tobacco industry targets young people, the growing popularity of emerging products, such as e-cigarettes, and the dangers associated with those products. If we don’t do more to prevent youth from starting to smoke, one out of every 13 children alive today in this country will die early from smoking.

Virtually everybody we know has a friend or relative who has died from tobacco use or have had their family’s lives unalterably changed as a result of tobacco. Many advocates of the tobacco control community are motivated by their own personal stories related to the health consequences or loss of loved one due to tobacco. This video explores some of those personal stories in honor of the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health.

During her tenure as Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Regina Benjamin released two Surgeon General’s Reports on smoking and health. For her, the impact of smoking has always been much more than clinical – it’s personal. Virtually everybody we know has a friend or relative who has died from tobacco use or have had their family’s lives unalterably changed as a result of tobacco Dr. Benjamin shares how smoking has impacted her family.

Virtually everybody we know has a friend or relative who has died from tobacco use or have had their family’s lives unalterably changed as a result of tobacco. This includes Ann Staples from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. In honor of the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, she’s sharing her personal story. Learn how her mother’s smoking lead to severe consequences to her health and her career.

The landmark report released by the ninth Surgeon General, Dr. Luther Terry, laid the foundation for tobacco control efforts in the U.S. Through the efforts of tobacco control professionals, advocates, and researchers the work has continued to move forward. Acting Surgeon General Dr. Boris D. Lushniak discusses the progress of tobacco control and the work still to be done to end tobacco-related disease and death.

Cigarette smoking has devastating effects on health and it is an unequal opportunity killer. People with lower-incomes and less education, and certain racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to smoke, so they bear a bigger share of the disease burden caused by the tobacco use epidemic. In conversations with several leaders in tobacco control, this video shines a spotlight on this health disparity, how it developed, and how tobacco companies have contributed.

This video highlights key findings from the previous 31 Surgeon General reports that advanced the tobacco control movement, and sheds light on important health issues such as disparities, causal links to various diseases, exposure to secondhand smoke, and indoor smoking, among others.

Smoking is the largest preventable cause of disease and death in the United States. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans smoke at much higher rates than average, so they suffer more smoking-related death and illness. In this video, Dr. Scout, director of the Network for LGBT Health Equity at CenterLink, talks about what smoking does to LGBT health, including the tobacco industry’s long history in marketing to the LGBT community.

A new public service announcement (PSA) designed to educate adults about the long-term impact of tobacco use on this nation’s future—its youth.The PSA points out that 5.6 million children alive today will ultimately die early from smoking if we do not do more to reduce current smoking rates.

This video features Tips ad participants Terrie Hall, Brandon Carmichael and Roosevelt Smith, discussing their experiences during and after the Tips campaign.

Over the past 50 years, the social acceptability of smoking has declined significantly; this is a keystone accomplishment of the tobacco control movement. This video explores the importance of social norm change as a primary strategy for improving public health by reducing smoking rates.

Madeleine Solomon of Emory University and the Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium examines the social and policy changes that have affected tobacco use by reducing acceptability of smoking.