<P> The Surgeon General is also the ultimate award authority for several public health awards and decorations, the highest of which that can be directly awarded is the Surgeon General's Medallion (the highest award bestowed by board action is the Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal). The Surgeon General also has many informal duties, such as educating the American public about health issues and advocating healthy lifestyle choices . </P> <P> The office also periodically issues health warnings . Perhaps the best known example of this is the Surgeon General's warning label that has been present on all packages of American tobacco cigarettes since 1966 . A similar health warning has appeared on alcoholic beverages labels since 1988 . </P> <P> In 1798, Congress established the Marine Hospital Fund, a network of hospitals that cared for sick and disabled seamen . The Marine Hospital Fund was reorganized along military lines in 1870 and became the Marine Hospital Service--predecessor to today's United States Public Health Service . The service became a separate bureau of the Treasury Department with its own staff, administration, headquarters in Washington, D.C, and the position of Supervising Surgeon (later Surgeon General). </P> <P> After 141 years under the Treasury Department, the Service came under the Federal Security Agency in 1939, then the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) in 1953, and finally the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). </P>

When was the surgeon general created in the united states