Health expert cautions against normalisation of tobacco deaths 70 years since direct link between smoking and cancer uncovered

Public health initiatives on smoking in the UK are comparable in scale with the interventions made regarding clean water and sanitation in the 19th century, a leading expert has said.

Sir Richard Peto, emeritus professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at the University of Oxford, worked alongside the scientist Richard Doll, who uncovered a direct link between smoking and cancer 70 years ago on Wednesday.