Impact of the 2006 Surgeon General's Report

The 2006 Surgeon General's Report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke confirmed once and for all that secondhand smoke is a serious health hazard. The Report also makes clear that smoke-free environments are the only way to effectively protect nonsmokers from this hazard. The Report has had a decisive impact on a range of public and private policy decisions taken at the national, state, and local levels. This impact was immediate, and has continued over time. In many cases, policymakers specifically cited the Report's conclusions in announcing their decisions to make various settings smoke-free. Some policymakers and organizations that in the past had been skeptical about the science of secondhand smoke and had opposed smoke-free policies reversed their positions because of the Report. The Report has accelerated the spread of smoke-free environments, and appears to have helped push the United States past a tipping point on this issue. The session will include: (1) a review of the major conclusions of the Report; (2) a brief description of the actions taken by the CDC Office on Smoking and Health to communicate and widely disseminate the conclusions of the Report to the public; (3) an overview of the smoke-free policy activity that has occurred in the public and private sectors since the Report's release; (4) examples of ways in which state and local tobacco control programs have used the Report's findings to advance their objectives; and (5) a review of lessons learned.