The recent success of the United States antismoking movement has produced a marked decline in the U.S. smoking population. A study employed Jurgen Habermas' communicative competency theory to examine United States smoking controversy discourse and identify the most successful appeals of the antismoking movement. Analysis revealed that primary terms used in the discourse were misconceived in a sixteenth century pre-scientific conceptual field and, as external references, work to inconspicuously limit the discursive formation. (The word "smoking," for example, traces back to the 1500s and refers to a visual phenomenon taking place outside the body). Scientific progress of knowledge relocates the problem inside the body where addictive poisons disease the lungs. A process of post-scientific re-identification establishes these correct internal event descriptors. If these successful appeals can be intensified and employed in an educational context, an end to the Third World smoking epidemic may be hastened. (Six appendixes including a proposal about smoking in public from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, excerpts from speeches, and an external event continuum are attached. A 45-item bibliography is also attached.) (Author/TD)