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R N Proctor

Publications and source records attributed to R N Proctor.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Why did the Nazis have the world's most aggressive anti-cancer campaign?

Recent historical work has shown that while certain kinds of science were destroyed under the Nazi regime, other kinds flourished. Sciences of an applied nature were especially encouraged, as were sciences that fit within the larger program of Nazi segregation and extermination. Little attention, though, has been given to Nazi cancer theory and policy. That is curious, given that the Nazi regime launched one of the most comprehensive and successful cancer prevention programs of the century, involving bans on smoking, restrictions on carcinogenic food dyes, new steps to limit exposure to asbestos and radiation, and much else as well.

Germany↗

Darwin's revolution.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Biological Evolution↗

The anti-tobacco campaign of the Nazis: a little known aspect of public health in Germany, 1933-45.

Historians and epidemiologists have only recently begun to explore the Nazi anti-tobacco movement. Germany had the world's strongest antismoking movement in the 1930s and early 1940s, encompassing bans on smoking in public spaces, bans on advertising, restrictions on tobacco rations for women, and the world's most refined tobacco epidemiology, linking tobacco use with the already evident epidemic of lung cancer. The anti-tobacco campaign must be understood against the backdrop of the Nazi quest for racial and bodily purity, which also motivated many other public health efforts of the era.

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