Story: Smoking

Department of Health poster

Department of Health poster

This poster from 1958 shows that even before the conclusive reports of the UK Royal College of Physicians in 1962 and the US Surgeon General in 1964, health authorities in New Zealand were clear that cigarette smoking was likely to cause lung cancer. There is little evidence that such warnings had much public impact at that stage because smoking continued to rise in popularity.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, New Zealand Railways (Publicity Branch)
Reference: Eph-D-SMOKING-1958-01

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Jock Phillips, 'Smoking - Smoking under attack: 1960–2000s', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/ephemera/38980/department-of-health-poster (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Jock Phillips, published 5 Sep 2013