President’s Page
TEXAS21 RAISE THE TOBACCO AGE
by Kevin W. Klein, MD, DCMS President TOBACCO
2 We have come a long way since the height of the 1950s smoking pandemic when lighting
a cigarette was cool, even glamorous. Smoking was a prerequisite for Hollywood actors
(and may still be). I recall that many doctors smoked, and lecture halls and hospitals
reeked of tobacco. In 1929, in this medical journal, Dallas County Medical Society
President J.M. Martin, MD, wrote about the perils of smoking and how “this fad and fancy
became a fixed habit and a menace to the health and happiness of the individual.”
2 Dallas Medical Journal May 2019
