[1]Before Dr. Luther L. Terry, then the Surgeon General of the United States, issued his office's first "Report on Smoking and Health" more than 30 years ago, thousands of articles had already been written on the effects of tobacco use on the human body.

[2] Tobacco companies had countered the reports--which purported to show links between smoking and cancer and other serious diseases--with denials and competing studies.

[3] So in 1964, Terry and his Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health knew they were stepping into a major pit of controversy when they announced "cigarette smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance in the United States to warrant appropriate remedial action".

[4] It was America's first widely publicized acknowledgment that smoking cigarettes is a cause of serious diseases.

[5] But the issue wasn't settled in 1964, nor is it settled in 1997, despite literally thousands more studies--and litigation that has forced at least one tobacco company to admit what some activists say they knew all along: cigarette smoke is hazardous to your health.

[6] More than 30 years--and more than 20 Surgeon General reports--later, the issue appears headed for settlement in the courtroom rather than the laboratory.

[1]30多年前，在当时美国的卫生局局长路德·L·特里博士发表他上任以来的第一份“有关吸烟与健康的报告”之前，已经有成千上万篇关于吸烟对人体健康影响的文章发表了。

[2]烟草公司对这些旨在表明吸烟和癌症以及其他疾病之间有关系的报告采取抵制的态度——予以否认，并提出分庭抗礼的研究报告。

[3]所以，在1964年，特里和他的吸烟与健康咨询委员会就明白了，在他们宣布“吸烟危害健康，在美国应引起人们足够的重视，有必要采取适当的补救措施”时，他们就踏人了一个争论的大坑中了。

[4]那是美国第一次广泛宣传，承认吸烟会导致严重的疾病。

[5]但是这个问题在1964年没有得到解决，在1997年还是没有解决，尽管确实又进行了数千项研究——且提起的诉讼已迫使至少一家烟草公司承认一些禁烟活动积极分子的说法，其实也是他们一直都明白的：吸烟对人体有危害。

[6]30多年以来，有20多位卫生局局长提出报告，此后，这个问题似乎是走向法庭解决，而不是在实验室解决。