Surgeon general that tobacco lobbyists got fired dies

Jesse Leonard Steinfeld, whose campaign against second-hand smoke made him the only U.S. Surgeon General forced to resign, under President Richard Nixon, died in Pomona, California. He was 87.

Dr. Jesse Steinfeld

Tobacco lobbyists – and their campaign contributions – caused Nixon to jettison Steinfeld.

Three U.S. surgeons general have played the biggest roles in alerting the public to the dangers of tobacco.

In 1964, Dr. Luther Terry issued the first Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health, irrefutably linking smoking with lung disease and other illnesses. The report led to a sharp drop in smoking and to the first warning labels on cigarette packages.

Seven years later, Dr. Jesse L. Steinfeld issued a second report focused on the dangers of second-hand smoke. He proposed what he called the Non-Smoker's Bill of Rights, which said that the country must free non-smokers from the hazards and annoyance of other people's addictions. He strengthened the warning on packages and issued the first ban on smoking in government buildings.

In the 1980s, Dr. C. Everett Koop accelerated the war against tobacco, producing the first ban on smoking in airplanes.

But Steinfeld was the only one who paid the price of being canned.

To read his obituary in the Los Angeles Times, click on http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-jesse-steinfeld-20140806-story.html#page=1