Atlas Trail
Evidence, Diet and Doubt: Three Turning Points in Public Health
Three mid-to-late twentieth century moments changed what the field knew, or thought it knew: a cohort of British doctors that proved smoking caused lung cancer, a Senate report that tried to tell Americans what to eat and was fought over ever since, and a historian's argument about why people stopped dying so young that other historians still dispute. This trail follows the studies, the people behind them, and the open question one of them left behind.
Stop 1 of 7.
Milestones
1951: Doll and Hill begin the British Doctors Study, following a 1950 hospital study that had already suggested a link.
Stop 2 of 7.
Figures
One of the two epidemiologists behind the study.
Stop 3 of 7.
Figures
The medical statistician who co-led the study and later named the Bradford Hill criteria for causal inference.
Stop 4 of 7.
Milestones
1977: a Senate committee tries to set national dietary guidance, and industry pushes back.
Stop 5 of 7.
Figures
The senator who chaired the committee for its entire nine years.
Stop 6 of 7.
Milestones
1976: Thomas McKeown argues nutrition, not medicine, drove the historic mortality decline.
Stop 7 of 7.
Open Questions
The debate McKeown's book opened is still open; this atlas records it as such.
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