Smoking Kills: The Revolutionary Life of Richard Doll

At the end of the Second World War, Britain had the highest incidence of lung cancer in the world. For the first time lung cancer deaths exceeded those from tuberculosis - and no one knew why. On 30 September 1950, a young physician named Richard Doll concluded in a research paper that smoking cigarettes was 'a cause and an important cause' of the rapidly increasing epidemic of lung cancer. His historic and contentious finding marked the beginning of a life-long crusade against premature death a…