Hypertension may or may not be more common today than in the past, distant or recent. Regardless, it is the most prevalent risk factor for premature car diovascular disease, and, since cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the United States and all industrialized countries, hypertension can correctly be called our major public health problem (24).As seen in Figure 1, the total estimated hypertensive population in the United States now numbers some 30 million people. Though some would add another 20 or more million to this number by including all with diastolic levels between 90 and 95 mm Hg, as well as those between 85 and 90, I believe the criteria used in the NHANES study-systolic above 160 and/or diastolic above 95 mm Hg-are more appropriate, since as many as one third of those with diastolic readings above 95 mm Hg are below 90 mm Hg on repeated readings (25). I do not address further the issue about variability of the blood pressure. I raise the issue simply to remind all interested in Public Health that there is no benefit and a great deal of potential harm in the use of such loose criteria as to label and treat many who are not and never will be hypertensive.Beyond the number of hypertensives, the percentages given in Figure 1 on the number of hypertensives on therapy and under adequate control must disturb all who have been lulled into assuming that the war on hypertension has been won because of the marked fall in death rates for both heart attack and stroke that have occurred since 1968. Despite all of the efforts expended against it over the past 25 years, hypertension remains frequently untreated and infrequently well controlled..