Finding a connection between smoking and lung cancer

Medicine Through Time – Smoking and Lung Cancer, 1945-2015

In this course, Professor Virginia Berridge (LSHTM) examines the history of the connection between smoking and lung cancer. We start by looking at when the connection was discovered and how this linked to the sweeping changes occurring in public health in the 1940s and 1950s. We’ll then look at why people did not accept the evidence on smoking and lung cancer. The next module will examine how the issue finally got on the policy agenda from the early 1960s. The penultimate module will look closely at the health education campaigns on smoking and how effective these were. Finally, we’ll look at later developments, such as passive smoking and e-cigarettes.

Finding a connection between smoking and lung cancer

We start by looking at when the connection between smoking and lung cancer was discovered. This was linked to the sweeping changes that were occurring in public health in 1940s and 1950s.