The anti-smoking role of the Finnish Medical Association
According to contemporary estimates, Finns were the heaviest smokers in the world in 1920. After WWII, in 1949, three out of four Finnish males had the smoking habit. Gradually, research reports began to appear in the 1950s of the harmful effects of smoking. Finnish medical associations stated in their joint declaration of 1960 that smoking increases the incidence of pulmonary and cardiac disease, shortens life expectancy and is therefore a serious menace to public health. Anti-smoking combating had started in Finland.