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The New Surgeon General

Written on: July 14th, 2009 by: in News

The nomination of Regina Benjamin to the office of Surgeon General was announced yesterday by President Obama. According to the Surgeon General’s website, the appointee serves “as America’s chief health educator”, and reports not to the President, but to the Assistant Secretary for Health. Dr. Benjamin, the first African American woman to be elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association, and has served for 20 years as the only doctor in the remote Alabama community of Bayou La Batre. You can read about previous Surgeons General here.

Former office holders have written on personal subjects as well as on public health issues. C. Everett Koop, Surgeon General during most of the Reagan administration, wrote a well-regarded biography in 1991, which as well as describing his own fascinating life, also provided an inside look into his thinking about various controversial and ethically complex medical issues. Joycelyn Elders’ biography, also available from the Delaware Library Catalog is another fascinating story of personal accomplishment, as well as an interesting perspective on the political calculations of the Clinton White House.

Courtesy of EBSCO’s Academic Search Complete databases, here are a select few of Discover magazines “20 things you didn’t know about the Surgeon General”:

• SGs are not always MDs: Robert A. Whitney, who served in the interim between Novelle and Elders, was a veterinarian
• During World War I, under SG Rupert Blue, cigarettes were issued as part of each fighting man’s basic field rations kit
• However, 20 years later, Luther Terry published a report that nailed cigarette smoking as a cause of cancer, triggering the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act.
• Antonia Novello, under George H. W. Bush, was a harsh critic of Big Tobacco. Her brother-in-law, Don Novello, played a chain-smoking priest. Father Guido Sarducci, on Saturday Night Live
• C Everett Koop re-introduced the military-style outfit to the office (the S.G. is one of the only 7 uniformed government services). He also had a cameo appearance in Exorcist III

You can read the whole list here with your Delaware Library Card ID and PIN