Tobacco Documents Online

THE WEBB-WARING INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH (A Colorado Corporation not for Profit) Located at the UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO MEDICAL CENTER 4200 East Ninth Avenue Denver, Colorado 80220 may 13, 1964 Mr. George V. Allen, President The Tobacco Institute, Inc. 808 17th Street, N.W. Washington 6, D.C. Dear Mr. Allen: Our report given to the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee which you requested in your letter of N~ay 5 has been expanded, and is well covered, I believe, in the enclosed reprint recently published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. This is part of an ongoing study. We hope to have some publishable information on the nature of the black pigment before too long. As you can also see, we are now able to classify our cases as to their having chronic bronchitis as well as emphysema at postmortem, a major forward step, we believe. Ma.y I say in passing that I have detected, since the Surgeon General's Report, somg impressive indications that cigarette manufacturers feel a sense of responsibility about the potential capability of cigarette smoking causing disability and death. It is rf;p hope that they will now begin to talk moderation in cigarette smoking. I confidently believe that they will t~n no longer be in the untenable position in which they have obviously been. We know that smoking cigarettes shortens the lives of many, but not all who smoke. We know that inhaling is a principal factor. We also know that the temperature at which tobacco is burned (cigarettes vs. pipes and cigars) is important. We also know that the quantity of smoke inhaled is important. We strongly suspect that smoking is more harmful the earlier in life it is started. We don't yet know for sure how to spot those who will get into trouble from smoking: those who start coughing early seem to have a greater proneness to serious lung diseases than others. We don't know how smoking does its harm. We do strongly suspect that lung cancer, chronic bronchitis and emphysema each have multiple causes, thus making it probably impossible ever completely or directly to indict smoking as the cause of any of them. I am grateful to you for reading these considered opinions, would be glad to discuss them further with you and hope that the Tobacco Institute may in good conscience consider them in its future contacts with the public. Dedicated to the Study of Diseases of the Lungs

! Mr. George V, Allen May 13, 1964 page 2 It is altogether likely that if a11l of the above were acknowledged in advertisements by the cigarette companies, the results would be two: 1) sales would be unaffected since most people don't seem to care about such matters (e.g. United Kingdom), but at least they could not claim that they had not been warned., and 2) government would no longer have any serious controversy with the industry. Cor,dially yours., ~ ~~~ og~ S. M~, chell., M.D. RSM: ch Enc.