Tobacco Documents Online

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.B. The Surgeon General's Report--1967. , The 1967 report discusses generaliy current information "on the health consequences of smokin~ and then presents "the major findings of research studies published ~n the past three to four years~ under the following six headings: O i. Smoking and Overall Mortality. 2.. Smokin~ and Overall ~0rbldity. B. Smoking and Cardiovascular Diseases. 4. Smoking and Chronic. Bronchopulmonary Diseases ' (Non-Neoplastic) . 5. Smoking and Cancer. 6. Other Conditions and Research Areas. O The introductory portion of the Surgeon General's 1967 r~port refers to earlier deaths and excess disability which "would not have occurred if those affected'had neve~ smoked" and attrib- .utes practically all of the earlier deaths from-lung cancer, a substantial portion of the earlier deaths from chronic broncho- pulmonary diseases and a portion of the earlier ~eaths of c~rdio- vascular origin to cigarette" smoking. The report observed that the conclusion that ~garette smokers have h~gher death rates ~hnn their

nonsmoking counterparts has "changed the emphasis of the present problem away from the question 'Does cigarette smoking cause d~s- ease?'" to more precise questions dealing with the degree of associ- ation, the portion of earl~ mortali£y and ~xcess disability caused by smoking, the portion that could be averted by the cessation or reduction of cigarette smoking and (in fourth and last place on the Surgeon General's iist) "What are the biomechanisms ~hereby these effects take place and what are the critical factors in these mechanisms?" ~ The "changed emphasis" away from the question of whether cigarette smoking causes disease and the placing of determination ~f biomechanisms in last place is proof that what many scientists who appeared before Congress in 19~5 feared'would happen has happen- ed. An offici~l position t~at cigarette smoking causes disease has ~een taken ind the primary mission of much "research" is to show additional statistical ~associatiqns" between cigarette smoking and certain diseases rather than to discover the basic biomehhanu isms actually responsible for such diseases. In this regard, a r~cent publication listing "gngoing research" in the.cigarette- health field reveals that a suHstantial part of the basic research

being done today is tobacco industry financed and administered e~ther by the American Medical Association or .t~e Council for To- .bacco Research (through its independent Scienti.fi~ Advisory Board); and that a substantial amount of Governmen£ supported "research" (over 1/3 of the total number of projects listed}" consists of "behavioral" studies, educational programs and anti-smoking propa- ganda.| " " • A review of th~ footnotes to the 1967 Surgeon General's summary report discloses no reference to any research demonstrating a "mechanism" by which smoking is proved to cause any human disease.* The references cited consist of the 1964 Surgeon General's Report, an unpublished smoking and health bibliography, two reports on mouse painting, fifteen statistical surveys and a report on ~iga- rette smoking "patterns". • The "gaps" in the case against cigarettes which were p~inted out after the 1964 Surgeon General's.report still exist. -Nothing contained in the 1967 summary report has eliminated or lessened them. Some of the miterial contained in the report, and considerable material~ich was not incorporated therein,, supports *Smoking itself canno£ be ~h~ cause of any disease since non- smog;ors develop all of the diseases statistically associated with smoking.

"highlights" such as the following rather than those selected by ,.the Surgeon General: . . " Several recent studies show no association between cardiovascular disease and cigarette smoking. The "consistent association" referred to in the Surgeon General's report in 1964 is no longer "consistent": Furthermore the recent literature contains stronq.evidence that ~rdio- ...... vascular dise&se is multifactorial i~ origin and that constitutional factors play a significant role in its cause. The epidemiologlcal data from which the association between lung cancer and cigarette ....smoking has been derived has been thrown into " question by recent large scale studies showing no association. Scientists have f~iledto discover any in- gredient in cigarette smoke responsible for -disease in man and no mechanism bywhich any human disease is Caused by cigarette smoking O has been demonstrated. ' These and other observationsare discussed in more deta~l in the following sections.

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