[Smoking and lung cancer--perspectives for preventing disease].

This presentation describes the chronology of research projects in epidemiology, chemistry, biochemistry and biology, as well as in psychology which have prompted the author to establish the American Health Foundation in New York in 1969 as an institution dedicated solely to disease prevention and health promotion. Since then, intensive research in those areas that are regarded as the major causes of the current epidemic of chronic diseases, namely tobacco use and nutrition, has contributed much to our understanding of causation and mechanisms of cancer and heart disease. Yet, Dr. Wynder points to be urgent need for preventive approaches which must be coordinated by institutions dedicated to Preventive Medicine, but are based on activities that involve the entire community. Only through cooperation of physicians, clinics, employers, schools, churches, insurance agencies, the media, the family, and each individual, can we insure that good health, prevailing into old age, will enable people to remain productive members of society throughout their natural lifespan. This is the task to which the Deutsche Gesselschaft für Gesundheitsförderung has been called when it was founded in Munich at the initiative of Dr. Wynder in 1989.