Tobacco Documents Online

HKE09~;i107 From: T'ric Tobacco Institute, 1735 K St. N. W. , Washington, D. C. 20006 Contact: William Kloepfer, Jr. (Home) 469-8434 (Office) 296-8434 FOR USE AFTER 10 A.M. WENDESDAY, APRIL 30, 1969 Washington, April 30--A leading pathologist summed up nearly three weeks of testimony today as a Congressional com- mittee neared the end of a massive review of the smoking and health controversy: "To claim there is now sufficient scientific evidence to establish that cigarette smoking causes disease is in my opinion unjustified." The witness was Sheldon C. Sommers, M.D., a pathologist and teacher at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York; Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; University of Southern California School of Medicine; Cornell Medical School; Tufts-New England Medical Center and New York Medical College. "It would be unfdir to deny," Dr. Sommers said, "the existence of evidence both favoring and opposing the belief that cigarettes may be or are associated statistically with various human diseases." Referring to heart diseases, emphysema and lung cancer, he said, "Simple solutions of these eomplex medical problems may be hoped for but they are scarcely to be expected." ~ EXNiB/~ MM~aS- "1 TNIS DOCU ~Y AGREEME~'~Z. MORE CONf1DENt~ 3 CTR tjt4 0149"

HKIos2i1o5 2 With respect to lung cancer, he said "No theory of causation I kno;:^i has adequately explained this striking sex difference"--that the most co;nmon amonc3 at least nine kno:m types of the disease "affect males five or six times more often than females." He continued, "The overall autopsy rate in the U.S. is below ten percent, and without supporting data there are too many death certificate errors in distinguishing between primary lung cancer and secondary spread to the lung of other cancers." Dr. Sommers said it is "surprising" that "after at least 30 years of experimental work, and many smoke inhalation experiments in animals, lung cancers of the most common, squamous cell human type have not been produced." During the current hearings, he said, "Many figures were cited concerning 30,000 or 50,000 or 260,000 persons per year having died from lung cancer or the other diseases being considered. "Since it is not knorm what the causes of lung cancer, coronary heart disease or bronchopulmonary disease are, the multiplication of numbers does not contribute to understanding them any better" he declared. Dr. Sommers sharply challenged earlier testimony that the "social life," including cigarette smoking, of a patient can be determined by examination of his lung tissues. "Blackening of MORE THIS DOCUMENT SUBJECT TO CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT. CTR! tt `t 014924

HKC092~109 3 lungs is from carbon particles," he declared, "and smoking tobacco does not introduce carbon particles into the lung." Dr. Som,mers ended on a note of optimism: "The current upsurge of investigative projects and grant requests in the field of smoking and health is one good indicator that at least among research workers the answers we need concerning the causes, developmental stages, diagnosis and control of these diseases are not available." He pointed out that tobacco companies who support the Council for Tobacco Re;seirch--USA and American Medical Association Edu- cation and Research Foundation smoking and health research activi- ties are stepping up their commitments. In addition to his other activities, Dr. Sommers has recently become research director for the Council. After Dr. Sommer's testimony, statements were filed in the committee record by Clarence Cook Little, D.Sc., the Council's scientific director, and the associate scientific director, Robert C. Hockett, Ph.D. RevAewing some of the many gaps he finds in knowledge con- cerning possible effects of smoking on human health, Dr. Little again advocated solving the problem of cancer causation by research. He cautioned that the "responsibility for singling out a single agent as a causative factor is a grave one," pointing out TNIS DOCUMENT SUBJECT TO MORE CpNFIDENTIAUTY AGREEMENT. Ct R E iN 01492153

H KE092i11t1 - 4 - that this "can delay or obstruct progress toward the discovery and revelation of the whole truth which still eludes us." Dr. Little said his interest in cancer research as a biologist "covers a span of 62 years." Dr. Hockett reviewed Council activities, stating that research grants and fellowships approved by its Scientific Advisory Board total more than $14 million and that grantees have published more than 700 scientific papers. A statistical association, Dr. Hockett said, "can never, per se, establish a causal relation." Discussing diseases of the heart and arteries, cancer and pulmonary diseases, he concluded that "there is still much to be learned before the complex questions involved can be answered and the causal factors ascertained." ##~ tH1S DOCUMENT SUBIEC1 10 Un AGREEMERL A WT1FlD~" C'p { '+ \M%• 014926