Tobacco Documents Online

1R?~ r madice1 ~~S ~ The newsmagazine of medicine pr!vlsory Board: GEO-.ZE C BLINCH. M D. Pr;l , CI•ui[al Mee-cine-TUlane Unlv., New Orleans MICHAEL E DeBAKEY, M D Prof., Ssrgery A Pres ol gaylor Call. o1 Med -Houston JOH4 H. rtNOhLES. M.D. Pro, . OrDt ol Medrcme-NYU ROgCRT E• LAWSON. M.D. CUmCaI Prol, Pedialrhe6, Univ. ol Mraml RUSSEL V. LE F. M D General MeO, C0e-P111D AIIO MedRal Cenler JAMES G. PRICE, M D. Assocrate Prof. Famrly Practlre-Umv. ol rJrlt. ELI ROBINS. MD Wallace Renard Prot . Psychralq-washmglon U. SI. Loals HOWARD A. RUSB, M.D. Oneclor, Instdale ol Rena6ihtalive Medicme-NYU WILLIAM W. SCD1T. M.D. Pral. uralogy-JOnns Noplrns Unid , Baltimore Eddfordnrh/e!: DORSEY W. W00DSON Maneging Edltor. ALFRED D. BERGER Art Drrector. ROGC4 LOTITO AsslstanJ Managing Editors: LARRY D FREDERICB, JUDITH GROCH Arvleles Editor MARIE G SICHROVSKY Assoclale Art/elee EdNonr CHORLOTIE GhLPER. PHYLLIS SMAW Medical Direetor: RICHARD M. BALL. M D. Senlor WNtere: MARM BLOOrA, ALIX KERR, DAVID N IFrF -...., ... ...,.nocn Assoclete Editon: MARK L. FUERST, SRNDEE GREGG AOJYN Bureauc WatO~ Rtan, REGINALD W. RHEIN 1R tChle')1 ALAN 1~ KENNEDY IStaN Corre6pOndenll. CHAALES MARWICK ININ CorresVonFenUl DAN MOShOr+ITJ LMea(rcolegal CorrespontlenU; Sen FMranMS OCIJUDYPM~ ISh~ACg (Cn/eU Conrr10u1Jng EdNors: GENE BAl4IETT. THOMAS W HILL. BERNARD MAGIL, JAY NELS:N tUCK Copy Deek Chlef: SARAH BRIrT DIAMOND Aselstanl Cop~ Chlefs: GINGER L[E BRAMS'ON, JAMES F. GANNON EditoNel AsslslAntu JANET GOLDERG, LIZ KORSAK. CHRISTINE /L PEDERSEN, FELICIA FOBLOCKI Art Associate: JEAN M. RNI6M Photography DJrector: JERRY MtLIER Asslslant Pnorography Editor RUFUS WILLIAMS McOraw~y1111 World IYarre: RALPH R. SCHULZ. Drreclorl AIICHAEL R. JOHNSON, Editor World Nows Bureaus: 1 LonOOn JAMES TROTTER Allsms, STRhFORD FISHER MIIAn, ANORE W HE ATH ClFeelAOa, ART ZIMMERMAN osLOlt. DAVID COOK MaseeR PETER HANN galattaq ROBIN NEESHAM Ptllt, MIIIE KOLBEhSCRLAG OsIIY, LORRAINE SMITH Eta PROts, ERNEST McCRARY Los ARRO1et MARVIN PETAL SlpgEpore PETER RUTLEDGE Bonn, ROBF.itT INGERSOLL Tobq RObERT E. UfE Brpstels. JAMES SMITN PubllsMr: HARRY L BROWN OMJean of McGraw•Nlll Publleatlons Compeny: Gordon L. lones. PIe1lGent, Paul F McPherson. Esecutlve Ylce•Presldent; Group Vlce•Presrdent. John B. W1e0e. 9enlor Ylce PlesrOenss Russell F Andelaon: James E. Boddorl Planning 1s Derelopment; Relph R Sthulr. Eddor.all VrcePqsroents• Den.s C Beran. Europeen oDera lions. Davrd P. Fanta. Research: lames E HecLell Con. trollrrr Erre 8. Norr EcOnOmlLt: Nromae H. Kmg, Many. lacevdng. Robcrt L. 1.ey0ura. CImu4Uon. Jonn W. Panen, Salesr EenYrd E. Schlrmer. InterneUonal. . , " ii.+. 9:1 C0 " ldiCOP1~1 Why pick on Dr. Gori" The flap over "safe" cigarettes (p. 291 once again points up the governmenl's schizophrenic attitude toward Uobacco. When National Cancer Institute microbiologist Gio Batta Gori told the press that smoking "less harardous" cigarettes is "tolerable," many health officials and public-interest grvups were appalled. Dr. Arthur ltpton, head of the NCI, said Dr. Gori's statements "set back our cause"-reducing smoking. Tobaccophobe Joseph A. Califano Jr., secretary of HEW, •'hit the ceiling;" insiders say, and Dr. Sidney Wolfe, head of Ralph Nader's Health Research Group, complained that Dr. Cori's words "may actually increase the amount of cancer in the country" Yet Dr. Gori was only doing his job. The fact is that the NCI had been paying him for 10 years to spearhead an effort to find a safer Idgarette-a campaign approved and funded by Congress a±ld known t,o both Dr. Upton and Joe Califano. Furthermore, Dr. Gori di.d not eRv Rmnkinp wae aafp Ho cavi the r.+4ir rmmrunnPnta nI' cnma brands of ci,,arettes had been reduced to such low hevels that some people could smoke limited numbers of these cigarettes without "an appreci- able effect on public health" It was President Carter-not Dr. Gori-who called cigarettes safe. In a recent v!sit to North Carolina, Carter said the government wanted to "make the smoking of tobacco even more safe than it is today." So the wrath of public-healrh officials should be directed toward the White House, not at Dr. Gori. And if the NCI believes less- hazardous cigarettes will only sen•e to encourage smoking, it should both d:ah,,nd its program to develop safer cigarettes and (as MWN did in its last issue) demand that the Agriculture Department stop subsidizing tobacco farming. Good work, Center for Disease Control Dr. Steven C. Beering, dean of the Indiana University medical school, quite properly praised the Center for Disease Control for Bwiftly isolating the legionnaire's bacterium that felled a score of people on the campus last winter (p. 25). When a mysterious malady struck 221 participants at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia two years ago. CDC epidemiolo- gists failed to came up with an immediate explanation ayld were rDundly derided in Congress and the news media as the gang that couldn't shoot straight (nrrta. Jan. 10, '77, p. 52). But since those dark days, CDC has isolated the slow-growing bacterium that causes legionnaire's disease, produced an improved eulture medium to help diagnose the condition in suspect patientJJ, and cleared up the decade-old mysteries of "Pontiac fever" and the "Baint Elizabeths pneumonia outbreak." The CDC's sleuthing even made it possible for Spanish and British health authorities to pin down as legionnLLire's disease earlier perplexing outbreaks of lung illness in their countries. Well done, CDC. -Ax1,Rdn. eeW 9