Tobacco Documents Online

Page 24 I DAILY HEYS Nev York, New York June 30, 1964 Slams Report On Cig Cancer As Haphazard Waahin¢tnn, June 29 (APl-A a-a•apaper executive trained as a statiitician told Cont;ress tMtay that tha U. S. Public Health S.vvicP e special report on emok- ing and health trns luseed on statistical methods "that can only be deacribed as haphazard tad unseientiAc." The report, issued by a health aervire epecial advisorv commit• t•- Iaat .lenurry, concluded that riearet amokinq mav csuce death fwni cancer and other diseasee. TeatimonT at Hearing The criticism of the report eame in testimony befort the Nvu:- Commerce Committ-e. a t udy i n(e possible legislatire means tu curb am"',ing, by Alan r ponnahoe, executive vic^ pree- ident and aasi-tent publish •r of t' • Riehmond Timea-Diepatch and the Richmond News Leader. It f•.Ilowed iasuanre of a state- ment bv the ARrirultute Dnpart_ r-t that Americans had cut d+a-o en their amokinQ by ab+ut la million ei¢arets since the spe- era' rep rt aan released. The department eaid the out- bar': aa• a.4,.; helow• the Brst six months. of laet year. °t'nreaannable Implirstlone" Donnehoe, a member of the Ameri'an Statiatical Aasociation, told the oommittee thP report's atatie ical data "are intern+py inconaiPtent,lead to nnreasonahl implicatione. and ar• eontradic- tor,r not only with other research of a enmpetent nature, but al.-, with other facts known in b• trur " 1n a word;' he said, °thr stnokinu hypothesis (that it eau°e+ cancer) ia a weak as its evidence is shaky: and what we a- d.-alintr with is not so much srientetir methnrl aa it Is ec4n. t n• auesau•ork." GREENSBORU DAILY NEWS Greensboro, 1(orth Carolina June 30, 1964 Evidence Declared NtI0p33026 greatest concemra,ion ot r.. re'te smoke. "Why docs the peak incidence of primary bronchial cancer In U.S. males occur around age 57, in both nonsmokers and e i ng smokers, irrespective of the Grenvrorooouenewawaanuwraneurrau 8mount smoked or when smok• WASHING'ION, June Yg-Three ing began. This fact senousiy highly placed members of the questions the cigarette hypothe- medical profession told the House ats." he asserted. Interstate and Foreign Commerce Dr. Russek was as blunt In Committee they find no evidence his enatysis of the reports on that clearly connecte smoking of effects of cigarette smoking. Cigarettes and lung cancer and }ie said: heart di6eiise, "Statistical findings linking Dr. Thomas H Burford, profes• the tnbacco habit to coronary ser of thoracic surgery at Wash- disease afford no proof of a ingtoa Umversity in St. L o u i s casual relationship since exces• said: sive smoking, like overeating and failure to obtain adequate "I d b li h l o na e eve t at uag ean eer is caused by cigarette smok- ing and I do not believe that smoking is responsible for any shortening cf life." Dr. Henry 1. Russek, Council or Clinical Cardiology of the Amerh ean Heart Assoclathm, declared: "in t:pite of clear statistical evl- dence t h a t,over•indulgence in smoxma is far more prevalent among candidates for tbronary, at- lec`.c than among normal mn- trols. there is at present little else to support a casual relationship between tobacco consumption and heart disease." FFom Dr. L Henry l;arlaad 1 clinical professor of rediology a~ the University of Californie htedi- ral School, ceme this report: "It Is unlikely that a single e enous factor such as dgaret smoke should be a prime cause of cancer, or emphysema, or ath• erosclerosie." Garland told the committee that although U.S. males In upper in- eventually be proved to be due eome brackets smnke more thanl to a virus or virus-like substance, those in lower brackets. "the up and that It will probably require per brackets h e v e algeltitantly~ a"very special set of circtux+ less lung c a n c e r." He asked Ftances" within a person for it whether this Is due to diagaosUc to develop. differences, tn different levels of "So long as the estue of cancer stress, or to nutritional factors? I is unknown it eould seem only The Callfnrnia medical school) reasonable that to raise an alarm authority sa.d there are many about cisarette smoking Is un- questions io.rk -d In the reports, p•arrentrd" and conlradictr:ry data. I nne ntember of the committee "Por examplc, British malesl pointed t that tbe statements have abcut twice the teperted rrlra.i oy the three dnc,ars - Incidence or lung cancer ao U.S.J w(le iagly atmllar In format males. Yot the British smokel 'eed e olf the same mimas oniy about one•half as many eig- Fraph r achine, It was admitted arettes per capita. Is this duel t%%; one of the phveiriaes that his to genetic factors, to etmospher•I statement had been shown to a ie pollution?" Industry betore it was Riven, and He said his own studies indi• that d had been mimcngraphed cate that almost two-thirds of f^" use• bronehial cancers arise in those portions of the bronchiel Irce that ere nnt exposed to the exercise, is often an undeniable stress. "]'hus, while each of these fepto-s •shw a correlation with iteart disease, emotional inffu- ences could alone be Implicated In Its csusmion, For example, 'nail-biting' could be far more common among coronary beart disease victims than amoag healthy controls but no oae would aeriously consider this habtt as a causative factor. "Yet, the stress which emder• lies this netvous habit could well be an inltieting or aggravating Influence in coronary disease. "Our data clearly 'Indicates not only that the smoking habit is more prevalent in occupaUons of greater stressfuiness, but also that heavy smoking s more fre- quent when tensions increase,° Dr. Russek said. Dr. Burford said many physl- cians feel that cancer will