Benjamin Rush's educational campaign against hard drinking.

More than 200 years ago, during a period of unprecedented production and consumption of distilled alcoholic beverages in the United States, Benjamin Rush launched a health education campaign that warned the public about the hazards of such beverages. He corrected erroneous notions about their presumed beneficial effects and accurately described more than a dozen alcohol-related health problems. Although the temperance movement has had a tumultuous history in the United States, the origin and long-standing tradition of temperance as a health promotion activity needs to be recognized.