The National Cancer Institute's Smoking, Tobacco, and Cancer Program

¹ The Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

Unlike the days following the 1964 report of the Surgeon General on the health consequences of smoking, the NCI's emphasis is no longer on the definition of the problem and the accumulation of evidence linking smoking and tobacco use to cancer. The emphasis now is on reducing the prevalence of tobacco use throughout the US. The cancer control objectives for the nation now specify that we need to reduce the percentage of adults who smoke from the 34% rates found in 1983 to 15% or less by the year 2000, and reduce the percentage of youths who smoke by age 20 from 36% characteristic in 1983 also to 15% or less. By doing so, the NCI will contribute to the continued gain in reduced incidence of cancer.