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

Three U.S. surgeons general have played the biggest roles in alerting the public to the dangers of tobacco. In 1964, Dr. Luther Terry issued the first Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, irrefutably linking smoking with lung disease and other illnesses. The report led to a sharp drop in smoking and to the first warning labels on cigarette packages.Seven