['SPESPETOGS', ' ', 'PREFACE', 'In', '1982,', 'the', 'Public', 'Health', "Service's", 'Report', 'on', 'the', 'health', 'consequences', 'of', 'smoking', 'dealt', 'with', 'the', 'relationship', 'between', 'amoking', 'and', 'cancer.', 'This', '1983', 'Report', 'turns', 'its', 'attention', 'to', 'the', 'relationship', 'between', 'cigarette', 'smoking', 'and', 'cardiovascular', 'disease,', 'one', 'that', 'imposes', 'an', 'even', 'greater', 'burden', 'of', 'disease', 'and', 'premature', 'death.', '’', '.', 'In', 'preparing', 'this', 'Report,', 'the', 'Public', 'Health', 'Service', 'has', 'reviewed', 'a', 'world', 'literature', 'that', 'goes', 'back', 'more', 'than', '40', 'years', 'and', 'has', 'examined', 'the', 'results', 'of', 'epidemiological', 'observations', 'covering', 'many', 'millions', 'of', 'person-years.', 'This', 'evidence', 'permits', 'us', 'to', 'affirm', 'again', 'what', 'was', 'said', 'in', 'our', '1979', 'Report', 'and', 'what', 'is', 'the', 'consensus', 'of', 'other', 'seientifie', 'bodies', 'here', 'and', 'across', 'the', 'world.', 'Cigarette', 'smoking', 'causally', 'related', 'to', 'heart', 'disease,', 'and', 'along', 'with', 'elevated', 'levels', 'of', 'cholesterol', 'and', 'hypertension,', 'constitutes', 'the', 'major', 'risk', 'factors', 'for', 'contracting', 'and', 'dying', 'from', 'this', 'disease.', 'Since', '1979,', 'much', 'additional', 'information', 'has', 'accumulated', 'to', 'support', 'this', 'judgment.', 'From', 'a', 'public', 'health', 'viewpoint,', 'the', 'most', 'important', 'is', 'the', 'new', 'and', 'further', 'evidence', 'presented', 'in', 'this', 'volume', 'that', 'when', 'one', 'quits', 'smoking,', 'the', 'risk', 'of', 'dying', 'from', 'heart', 'disease', 'begins', 'to', 'recede', 'almost', 'immediately', 'and', 'eventually', 'becomes', 'no', 'greater', "than'that", 'experienced', 'by', 'someone', 'who', 'has', 'never', 'smoked', 'at', 'all.', 'Thia', 'is', 'an', 'encouragement', 'to', 'personal', 'action', 'and', 'a', 'justification', 'for', 'much', 'greater', 'research', 'and', 'program', 'effort', 'by', 'government', 'and', 'voluntary', 'agencies', 'in', 'helping', 'people', 'to', 'quit', 'smoking.', 'As', 'in', 'all', 'previous', 'Reports,', 'the', 'Public', 'Health', 'Service', 'has', 'turned', 'to', 'many', 'people', 'and', 'agencies', 'within', 'the', 'research', 'and', 'clinical', 'communi-', 'ty', 'in', 'developing', 'this', 'statement.', 'On', 'behalf', 'of', 'the', 'Service,', '1', 'express', 'my', 'respect', 'and', 'gratitude', 'to', 'them.', ' ', '©.', 'Everett', 'Koop,', 'M.D.', 'Surgeon', 'General', ' ']