Surgeon General's Report Summary

Dear Colleagues,

The 2014 Surgeon General’s report “The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress” was released Friday at a White House press conference. Since we send out Quittin’ Time on Friday I didn’t want to overload your inbox. But, in case you haven’t had time to review the report findings and recommendations yet, they are provided below. I found most striking that:

• Smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 premature deaths annually among Americans 35 years of age and older
 • 20 million Americans died prematurely from smoking since the first SG report in 1964
• 2.5 million nonsmoking Americans died from exposure to secondhand smoke during that time period
• 5.6 million of today’s children will ultimately die early from smoking according to present estimates
• 3,200 children younger than the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette every day in the US
• The estimated costs attributable to smok¬ing and exposure to tobacco smoke now approach $300 billion annually

David Zauche Senior Program Officer Partnership for Prevention Washington, DC 20036