Getting Through

come in Thanks just what I need that last thing go mmm ruff the old days Boudreau you know I sometimes think I'd have been better off if I stayed on as an acrobat well you got two days off anyway mm-hmm that's why I'm going to be making a movie they're already making a movie tell me something new when did you start smoking Oh about 12 13 me too I used to in those days we used to say it cuts down on your wind a stunt your growth but nowadays they know a lot more about it now I guess they are pretty bad for you according to the script they can kill you this is building 31 on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Maryland here's the office of the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service and every morning a lot of skillful people arrive to concern themselves with the help of the nation but you can't do the whole job here so they're out in the field to 160-thousand public health people federal state county and city all across the land all of them working at the same job to fight disease and create what they call a climate of good health this is the Public Health Service quarantine station at San Pedro about 25 miles south of Los Angeles the man in the stern of the boat is dr. Don Sinclair medical officer in charge doctor can you tell us what you're up to out there going out the board a freighter in the harbor Burt she's ready to dock at berth to 28 we've got a case of suspected communicable disease on board and what happens if you find the disease we'll quarantine the man before they dock and keep the disease out of the country it's an endless fight against the cholera smallpox plague yellow fever and many other diseases the task of Public Health is not only to prevent disease but to conquer the doctors go right to where the disease is to a coal mine in Beckley West Virginia say [Music] this test is being run at the Beckley epilation Hospital by dr. Donald a resolution mr. Simpson is a coal miner Bert we're measuring his heart and lung activity while he's exercising this is part of a study of lung disease in coal miners we're finding out how working in a mine affects the man's lives these people in public health are really a serious bunch they don't monkey around they're concerned with public health problems and today they've got themselves out Wafaa it's called smoking cigarette smoking advertising has always plugged the pleasures of smoking but it's not much of a pleasure that'll cause several hundred thousand premature deaths this year who says that not much of a pleasure when a cigarette smoker has twice the risk of a nonsmoker of death from a heart attack now wait a minute or when the risk of death from all causes is 70% higher for cigarette smokers than for non-smokers no kidding no kidding it turns out that cigarette smoking is one of the great health hazards of the 20th century where do you get all this stuff from him dr. Luther L Terry he was a Surgeon General in 1964 when the Public Health Service published a book that put the finger on smoking dr. Terry why did you get that book out I didn't get it out myself Burt we printed it and we endorsed it but it's the work of hundreds of health people all across the world dr. Terry was a book like this your idea not exactly the medical profession had been concerned about the increase in lung cancer ever since about 1950 in 1961 President Kennedy got a letter signed by the heads of some of our prominent voluntary health organizations such as American Cancer Society American Heart Association American Public Health Association International tuberculosis Association they sound very big I mean medically I'd say so they felt that the government should take an official look at the effects of tobacco on health that had never been done before now certainly in this fashion and why not well I'd say that never before have been so many research find Amanda detention I appointed Tim fine scientist to be the Surgeon General's committee he looked back carefully across all of the research for the past 40 years or so but especially since nineteen fifty two years later the report was published as you say we had put the finger on smoking and my successor is Surgeon General dr. William Stewart has kept it there the job of persuading people not to smoke concerns me and will probably concern my successor too and has two parts research and education but are you getting through we're determined to get through but one of the problems is that smoking has been socially acceptable for forty years now another is it in some diseases malaria say or cholera there are immediate paths from cause to effect but the effects of smoking as a report points out aren't quick or clear you don't smoke a cigarette in the morning and get lung cancer in the afternoon let me show you the book smoking and help reported the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service it's written in a flat federal way but still it's quite a shock to read the public health people thought it it'd be a bombshell when it came up so did the people running all our communications everybody began to tell the story and it seemed to be getting through 15 million people tried to stop smoking some could some couldn't this is the story if you look at cigarette smoke by everybody in the country over 18 been on the rise for over half a century there was a drop after the report came out and now well the up trend has been stopped but there's been no big drop smoking isn't a disease in itself they call it an habituation but it can lead to a slew of other diseases heart disease bronchitis cancer peptic ulcer emphysema those are the main psychologists say that people smoke for different reasons but that most of them are really looking for some kind of gratification they don't always find him this is Charlie Johnson one of the millions of Americans that the Surgeon General didn't get through to in 1964 gee I was only fourteen Burt but I didn't read the papers much yet you were smoking oh sure since I was 12 but I was a very light smoker to begin with hmm two a week two packs no two cigarette I see well we'd like to use you as a symbol of the 4,000 new smokers who begin to smoke each day the Surgeon General's report doesn't get through well I don't want you to think I'm dumb Burt I mean I I heard about the report when it first came out but you didn't read it no I'm too busy with my schoolwork have you ever given it much thought mm-hmm but I hear about a lot of things I don't give much thought to well maybe when I get old and square I'll uh well you know get reflected but who reflected Louise driving I do yeah but he's not interested in you you don't smoke oh this is my friend Pete McCabe he's a nonsmoker as they say have you read the Surgeon General's report Pete no but I read a lot about it you think the report had any effect on you I'm not sure maybe all I know is that when I started smoking it made my eyes water and I hated the taste so I bagged it [Music] I'd like six Super Bowl burgers six chocolate shakes and six orders of french fries and six orders of onion rings in six glasses of water oh no that'll hold us for the first time around maybe we'll order something to go hi Bert I'm just here with my peer group this is Judy Wyatt on bunny circuit hi Bert and this Jean Ross okay Martha Breen oh you already met the people cake hiya charlie two quick questions and before you're off again sure why do you smile well see I'd say I smoke because well because all my friends smoke you know I like to swing with a peer group not all of them how most of them more than half half is the national figure for high school seniors I guess we're 2/3 then do you enjoy it well sure I do anyway yeah most of the time Judy it's not so much and I enjoy it nobody makes me feel older than I am I don't like people thinking I'm just a little kid gene how come you're not smoking I tried it last year out of curiosity I guess but then I just quit you read something in the paper no that's how it made me quit I thought it was just a messy habits and made my room smell the thing I don't like is everybody telling us what to do about it preaching how can I preach when I don't know the answer all I do know is that in spite of the report half the kids in the country are smoking by the time they're 18 the other half are like people listen don't make a hero out of me if it didn't make my eyes water I bet I'd smoked like a chimney how do you know you never saw anybody like me for conformity and those doctors really say cigarettes could've got 20 years off my life they could but a runaway truck had got 60 years off the public health people are against runaway trucks too I suppose ie you shouldn't be a wise guy about this but are you trying to get me to give up cigarettes because of something that might happen later you want to try to get me to see myself as an old man or even a sick old man didn't understand my friends see a thick book written back in Washington is not as influential as a circle of good friends but Charlie Johnson's friends aren't the only people who said the smoking example young people spend a lot of time rebelling against the adult world they also spend a lot of time copying it here's Herbert Blagdon Charlie's teacher over Fremont hi what's your impression of Charlie Johnson herb well I gave Charlie the highest kind of rating he's a bright boy understands what he's ready performs well here in the lab why do you think Charlie smokes I don't know why I haven't given it much thought Burt I guess he gets a little upset from time to time and smoking calm the nerves lord knows that's why I do it you notice any difference between the smokers and the non-smokers in the class well kids who smoke generally a little anxious to get out out of school know how to class for a cigarette oh yeah yeah they may not always do quite as well in their work either I'm not Charlie of course how do you handle this in your teaching what I mean is well do you ever discuss smoking in class with them from a scientific standpoint yes we do it's our job to warn them students did run an anti-smoking campaign here a couple years ago about the time of the Surgeon General's report was it successful yeah no some of them got excited about it at the time but it sort of died out well what about you yourself do you think smoking is dangerous yes I do about convinced in it I'd like to stop but every time I do I climb the walls for a couple of weeks and then I start again people are always talking about the powerful influence of the whole there right sounds mighty rough eh and getting rougher every day yeah she's no good under 40 miles an hour you know what's the matter well buddy took a look at it and he says that the rings are so bad that the oil is backing up into the cylinders and telling the plugs and it's not the distributor no no the timings are right just the block is in bad shape I see and now we start the negotiations for the cost of a ring job a 60 bucks can you help me okay I'll split it with you 30 bucks for me 30 from you fair enough yeah I guess so but could you lend me the whole thing and I'll pay you back thirty how soon well see pour more Saturdays at the supermarket and I can uh why don't you give up smoking then you could pay me back faster I knew that was coming Charlie Pete McCabe's on the phone and Judy called about five minutes ago mr. Johnson I notice you kid with Charlie about a smoking you take it seriously yourself Oh indeed I do I've read quite a bit about the danger of it but well I just don't seem to be able to get through to Charlie why not I don't quite understand it myself I think I get along well with Charlie my boy respects me and he likes me just doesn't listen to me that's all I sometimes think that if I could quit then he would you see we've made a kind of smoky world for him it's tough for him to get out alone what does today a smart smoker look for in a cigarette yeah looks for the right tobacco yeah I just talked with it right we worked at a good deal he looks for the right he's gonna give me the 60 bucks for a ring job and that's that I'll pay him back half in the new super King you get that length length that makes any ordinary king-sized cigarette like well an ordinary cigarette Super King gives you all you could ask for in a smoker Charlie Johnson may not have read the Surgeon General's report but a lot of other people have and they're concerned one of these people is Maureen Neuberger the former senator from bargain she sympathizes with those who earn a living in tobacco but she also believes that we must get through to Charlie Johnson is my feeling bird that if spinach were giving us as much trouble as tobacco we ban it in a minute but the Surgeon General's report happens to deal with our largest crop from a tax standpoint that means it's not going to be easy to change or at least that you won't be getting so much pressure to change from tobacco companies or their ad agencies or the magazines or the TV networks pressure has to come from other directions from where well eventually from Charlie Johnson himself that's why senator Magnuson and I joined to sponsor legislation to put this little notice on every pack of cigarettes [Music] Charlie have you read the warning on the side of the pack sure yeah but if cigarettes were really that bad wouldn't the government banned and flat-out period we tried that with like eight years ago prohibition that was called it didn't work why not because with something like this no matter how many rules you make at the end of the trail you must have people who want to do something and then they wouldn't need the rules at all [Music] we're worried about young smokers like Charlie but half the kids in the country on non-smokers like Pete the cave and the Surgeon General's record show that there are 18 million former smokers in the United States the sad part is it takes so long to get through and the simple fact is that a lot of people are going to be disabled before they quit they're going to be too ill to do the things they want to do in life and some will die you know Judy I think it'd be fine if I could get on a good newspaper after I finish college you mean around here no New York San Francisco it's a place where the actions how do you know you'd like it if you've never been there gotta take a chance the future we think about it and talk about it all the time the future is always uncertain and smoking makes it even more so the doctors have said that cigarettes are out but before we can in this old habit we have to settle some old problems economic communications social problems and personal problems to one thing so everybody has to figure out for himself how he fits in but you don't have to wait for public policy on this with smoking even set a policy of your own [Music] [Applause]