The 1970s Medicine and Health: Chronology

1970:      The U.S. Congress passes the Occupational Safety and Health Act to ensure worker and workplace safety.

1970:     July 23 The nutritional content of breakfast cereals comes under fire before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.

1970:     December 30 The U.S. Congress passes the Poison Prevention Packaging Act, requiring manufacturers of potentially dangerous products to put safety tops on their containers so children will not be able to open them. The law takes effect in 1972.

1971:     January 1 Cigarette advertising on U.S. radio and television is banned.

1971:     March 18 Soft contact lenses win the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

1971:     December 24 President Richard M. Nixon signs the National Cancer Act, authorizing the allocation of $1.5 billion per year to combat the nation's second-leading cause of death.

1972:      The National Academy of Sciences suggests that air pollution probably explains why cancer rates are twice as high in cities as in rural areas.

1972:     January 10 The U.S. Surgeon General's report on smoking warns that nonsmokers exposed to cigarette smoke may suffer health risks.

1973:      The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses, redefining it as a "sexual orientation disturbance."

1973:      The U.S. Congress passes the HMO Act, regulating health maintenance organizations.

1973:     January 22 The U.S. Supreme Court's Roe V. Wade decision provides women with a constitutional guarantee of abortion rights.

1974:      The computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanner gains widespread use.

1974:     June The Heimlich manuever is introduced as first aid for choking victims.

1974:     August 12 President Gerald R. Ford urges Congress to pass national health insurance legislation.

1975:      Lyme disease, a disease transmitted by ticks to humans, is identified in Lyme, Connecticut.

1975:      The first U.S. strike by doctors is carried out in New York City hospitals.

1975:     May California doctors organize a month-long strike to protest rising insurance costs and inefficiencies in health care.

1976:      The U.S. General Accounting Office reports a startling program of sterilization of thousands of Native American women without their consent by the Indian Health Service.

1976:      Karen Ann Quinlan's parents win a court battle to turn off the respirator keeping their comatose daughter alive.

1976:      An outbreak of Legionnaires' disease occurs at the Philadelphia convention of the American Legion. Twenty-nine people die.

1976:      A swine-flu epidemic threatens to sweep the United States. Millions are vaccinated, but the warning turns out to be a false alarm.

1977:      U.S. scientists identify the previously unknown bacterium responsible for causing Legionnaires' disease.

1977:     July 2 The first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner is tested.

1977:     October 26 The world's last known case of smallpox is reported in Somalia. Two years later, the World Health Organization will announce that the disease has been eradicated.

1978:     January 11 The secretary of the U.S. Health, Education, and Welfare department calls cigarette smoking "slow-motion suicide."

1978:     February 17 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issues the first federal mandatory safety performance standard for equipment producing ultra-sonic radiation used in physical-therapy treatments.

1978:     July 25 The world's first test-tube baby is born in London, England.

1979:     February 11 The Commerce Department reports that U.S. cigarette manufacturers continue to increase sales despite cancer warnings.

1979:     March 19 The American Heart Association says moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages may protect against death from heart disease.

1979:     November 18 The Centers for Disease Control reports that the incidence of gonorrhea has leveled off, but cases of syphilis, a far more serious venereal disease, are increasing.