Tobacco Documents Online

Frederick P. Haas, Esq. Cy Hetsko, Esq. H. Henry Ramm, Esq. Paul D. Smith,.Esq. Addison Yeaman, Esq ..... On September 26, 1967, Dave Hardy sent to each of you an initial analysis of the Public Health Service morbidity study 'by Professor Theodor Sterling. Several of you responded with helpful observations and suggestions for its improvement, which we have passed on to Professor Sterling. Dave was successful in encouraging him to continue work on a longer analysis and oh- ..~~ tained the necessary materials to ,a, ssist him in t~e project. ~ recently completed study entitled "An Evaluation and Critique of the Report L~nking Cigarette Smoking to General Morbidity and Dis~~ ...... ab~l~ty" zs enclosed, together w~th an Abstract and Summary. - :..~. 1 " -' YOU will =ind that the lon'g i o tes : "~~ "Evaluat on" c ncentra " on what Sterling believes are the most significant defects in th study. He has d~monstrated that a wide scope of error morbidity may have be~-n introduced by the methods used to measure morbidity,~-~ dis~ility and smoking habits. In addition to the shortco~ngs of any home ~nte~iew method involving diagnosis of ~edical con-- ~.~_...~: points out in detail that the use of pro~ responses ditions, he is not accept~le. It is interesting and p~ob~ly ve~ t~lling to note ~~ that most of the info~ation used in the ~rbidity studyc~e ...~~~ at from inte~iews with female meters of the household who were

~;-.~ General Counsel -. January ii, 1968 --~"~ Page 2 ..~ "- : home at the t~e the interviewer called. The info=ation in re- ..... gard to female smokers and nonsmokers was, therefore, from "self- -~ responses" for the most p~, ~d was not affected so greatly the pro~ error possxbxllty as was the data wlth regard to the males. The data with regard to female smokers and nonsmokers ~ do not indicate that the female smokers are significantl dif- ferent from the nonsmokers. The comparison between female smokers and nonsmokers does not support the conclusions reached in the morbidity report. In spite of our instructions to the contra~, Sterling has s~tted these papers "info~ally" to the P~lic Health me,ice. ~en reminded of our wish to view the ~terial "first", Sterling wrote to say that to do so would have "weakened" his -. case. He added, "As it stands now, I have set in motion the process that will force the National Health Su~ey to defend its methods. I cannot do that, of course, if ~ere is the slightest possibility of compro~sing my integrity in this matter." These ~e not the doc~ents Sterling is preparing for COngressional use. His "long" doc~ent is to incorporate all the arg~ents and his "short" doc~ent is to be a s~ry of it. ~ We want, of course, to make suggestions w~th respect to the enclosed papers and again request cogent. Some ~nit~al obser- ~ vations are enclosed.__ The data recelved from PHS xn response to Senator Clements' letter of August 4, 1967, is, accordin~ to Professor Sterling, of "no use" in analyzing the ~rbidity=study. His ter of Jan~a~ 3, 1968, on this s~ject, is enclosed. We have brought this letter to the attention of The Tobacco institute wall follow up w/th Sterling concerning steps wh/ch may be taken to get the tapes he ~ntions on page 2. " We have asked The .... . . : : -.-.: :... . . -.;~:;. ;:~:.. ~.. -..,..:._~-- ,.%:. ~~~'¢~ ~ -"-~ -/~- ..~ .... .. .~ • ~ ..L-" ~#~'~%~ ~;~'~ ~ .... z"'-- "~" "~ -' "="-~'~ " ~ ~'~-a¢~ ~"

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