Surgeon General warnings trying to make a difference

A warning from the US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, on Tuesday, provided guidance on an issue that has puzzled American parents for years: the negative effects of social media on young people’s mental health.

Public health advice like this is uncommon, but sometimes becomes turning points in American life.

Decades of effort to curb tobacco use

It took a Surgeon General’s report in 1964 and decades of effort that followed for smoking in America to change from a glamorous habit to one with deadly consequences.

Annual per capita cigarette consumption in the United States had increased from 54 cigarettes in 1900 to over 4,000 cigarettes in 1963 when the first study suggested a link between smoking and cancer.

That prompted Dr. Luther L. Terry, the surgeon general under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, to a milestone report on the health risks and consequences of smoking in 1964.

Dr. Terry described the crisis as a “national concern”.

The fallout was rapid. In 1965, Congress required all packs of cigarettes distributed in the United States to carry a health warning. In 1970, cigarette advertising on television and radio was banned.

Tobacco continues to be a target of Surgeons General, who raised concerns about it in later years second-hand smoke and tobacco promotions aimed at children. And in 2016, Dr. Murthy issued a comprehensive report calling e-cigarettes and tobacco vaping “a major health risk”.

A crucial report in the AIDS crisis in 1986

Dr. C. Everett Koop, the surgeon general under President Reagan, was credited with changing the public discourse surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. In 1986, he has released a generation-defining report on AIDS. In plain language, the report discussed risk factors and ways people can protect themselves, including using condoms for safer sex.

But candid discussions of sexual topics later stumbled a surgeon general who served under President Bill Clinton, Dr. Joycelyn Elders. While her efforts to expand access to health screenings and sex education were praised by some, she resigned under pressure in 1994 after proposing to distribute contraceptives in schools and endorsing teaching children about masturbation as a way to prevent transmission of HIV. views that angered conservatives.

Concerns about violence on TV and in video games

In 1972, Dr. Jesse L. Steinfeld, the surgeon general under President Richard Nixon, called for “appropriate and immediate remedial action” after a report found a “uniform adverse effect” on children watching violence on television.

An 1980s focus on reducing drunk driving

In the late 1980s, the numbers were shocking: About 25,000 people in the United States died in alcohol-related traffic accidents each year.

In one of his last acts as Surgeon General, Dr. In 1989, buy up to strict new blood alcohol standards for drivers, as well as an increase in taxes on alcoholic beverages and a restriction on alcohol advertising. He also called for the abolition of happy hours and the immediate suspension of any licensed driver found to be over the legal limit.

Declaring obesity an epidemic in 2001

At the turn of the century, some 300,000 Americans died from diseases caused or exacerbated by obesity, prompting Dr. David Satcher, a surgeon general under President Clinton, in 2001 call for big steps by schools, communities and the food industry to act against what he described as an epidemic.

But the crisis has only gotten worse. From 1999 through 2017, the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. rose from 30 percent to 42 percent and from 5 percent to 9 percent, according to the CDC.

A modern focus on guns and a ‘loneliness crisis’

Social media is not the current surgeon general’s only concern. Dr. Murthy has also mentioned gun violence in America a public health problem and more recently an epidemic.

He has called for more investigations and government intervention. Former Surgeon Generals and researchers have also called for a policy change centered around treating gun violence as a public health crisis. Nearly 50,000 Americans will die from gun-related injuries in 2021, more than any other year on record, including homicides and suicides, according to the CDC. It is the leading cause of death among children in the United States.

And earlier this month, Dr. Murthy issued general consultation of a surgeon and a new framework to address “the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation and the lack of connection in our country,” which he compared to the risks of daily smoking. This trend was reinforced by the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

The physical health consequences of a poor or inadequate connection include higher risks of other health problems.

Here’s his advice for feeling less lonely.

In particular, the report on loneliness does not recommend social media as a form of connection, urging Americans to ensure that digital interactions “do not detract from a meaningful and healing connection.”