Lecture Pst. SG Yrs. 10/l l/90  Vol. 22 # 28 cover
Speech
By
C. Everett Koop, MD, ScD
Parkview Hospital
Fort Wayne, IN
October 11, 1990
This was my first Post Surgeon General speech on the evils of smoking and it is a template on which all subsequent speaking speeches were based and to which things were added, as they became known to us scientifically and politically.
This is the one of many tobacco control speeches, but I think it stakes out my claims honestly and fairly, as of 1990.
Again, I might say that this is the type of speech that presents a transition from being a government spokesperson to the opinions of a private citizen. The user will notice a difference in tone perhaps, because there is always a certain amount of constraint when one speaks as a representative of the United States Government, especially when criticizing an industry as well known for its duplicity and deceit as is the tobacco industry.
When I was given the Tyler Award for Environmental Achievement in Los Angeles on April 5th, 1991, I repeated much of what said in this lecture, because it was my understanding that it was my efforts in tobacco control and the effect they had upon the environment that led to my being the recipient of the Tyler Award.