Even if you’ve never lit a cigarette in your life, you may still be in danger of developing diseases associated with the nicotine habit. So said the Surgeon General’s report issued 30 years ago this week, on Jan. 10, 1972. In 1993, the Environmental Protection Agency backed up the Surgeon General when it called for the classification of secondhand tobacco smoke as a Class A carcinogen, citing it as a cause of 3,000 lung-cancer deaths a year. Since that report, state and local officials have restricted smoking in public places, including restaurants, airlines, offices and, in California, bars.

Copyright Aetna InteliHealth, Inc., 2013. All rights reserved.