Tobacco Documents Online

8/4/65 I believe that members of this committee are familiar with the work performed '-"e :`in our laboratory which falls under the heading of app2iad research. EX applied , }. , ..., ... . .. . .. research I mean the development of new flavors, the design of'filters with high and low £iltering,efficiencies and„ of course, quality control programs, which are functioning,at our mamafacturi!ng,plants,, at our leaf handling facilities, at Federal Tin,andPaper Products and also in cor.nec°ti:on~ with our licensees:througMout theworldl.e rlr. Okerson is particularly familliar wi'th the applied research projects gQing on at our'plants with respect to machines and processes and Mr. Erickson is likewise familiar with stud'ies conducted in connection with his leaf purchasing program, as well as investigations on the handling and storage of leaf at our Danville and I.exingtonn stemmeries. Therefore, what I'want to ta1:c aboUt today is a phase of'our work, with which you are more or less unfamiliar, and which we scientists like to call basic or funda- mental research. I want to explain t:ais phase of our work for three reasons - first, ' or a fourth ,I believe that you will find' it interescing, second, it consumes a third ef' our total research budget and, third, Ithat at so; e futurz dste your opinion ;- will be sought with~respect to the general direction such work should tw:ce. Speci- a~fically I am speaking of' studies which m:.okit be said to be health orizn _edi, and I Ile > : : . ~ , s~ < Y • ka:... . . must ask your indulgence while I attempt to lay a brief background. t. The most serious accusation brought against cioaretces is that their ~sa con- .f."tributes to lung,cancer- The evid'enee used'to promulgate this accusation falls into two categories - statistical and that based on animal expari:^entation. Back in the early nineteen-fifties Wynder and'Gtahamipublished a paper which described a technique of painting the shaved backs of mice with cigarette tar, thereby producing malignant tumors. This paper received a lot of attention and„ if you will recall, the story was written up dramatically in Life magaziine, with pictures o f mice carrying tumors on O their backs, etc. Within a year or two statistical studies were reported' - the first 0' from England by Hill and Bsr"~and the second'and third from the United States by CM ~ Hammond and' Horm. ~

3/4/65 In retrospect over the past ten-years or so, I feel that at first the mouse painting,results received the most publicity, whereas more recently!, particularly in the Surgeon General's report, the statistical £indings:have been emphasized!. These findings, as you, know„ allege that the incidence of l~ung, cancer is more common in cigarette smokers:than in non-smokers. However, one cannot say that the evidence produced by mouse painting,i's no~ Longer important„ since Wynder continuesthis type: of work at the Shoan Ketteri'ng Institute. Furthermore, the Tobacco R'esearch,Council' in Great Britain has gone all out in [his respect wi;th a special building and labo- ratory set up for mouse studies. It is also interesting to realize that after the Surgeon G'eneral"s report and after funds were allocated to experiment stations for health orienteditobacco research,, it was more or less agreed that the mouse wosldd have to be usedias a final criteria for measuring any improvement brought about by new seed varieties or new cultural and curing,practices. Therefore, the so-called' evidence based'on mouse painting expertnents cannot be ignored. With thi;s,brief background I would like to go:into Lorillardi's research atti- tude on these matters. Obviously it has been, and still is, out of the question for Lorillardi to conduct or even sponsor a statistical studyr. Therefore, we have A~ `only~concerned!ourselves with mouse painting investibations. We have refrained :~.- ~:._ F~from`doi'ng any of'this animal work ourselves but, on.the contrary, we have cooper- ~'.=ated wi'th Dr. Wynder for many years. We have supplied him with experimental ciga- '.7'rettes and with:tar derived from such cigarettes; al'so we have made available to im many pieces.of expensive laboratory equipment. From this association over the years we have:received' the benefit of his findings, however, not on an~ exclusive -`basi's,,siince such.findings are eventually made public in scientific journals. Dr. Wynd'er is creative with many orioinal ideas but he is not very Jood at designing an experiment.. Furthermore, he hasibeen rather erratic about keeping us properly informed on the results of experiments in which we have a keen i'nterest.. Therefore, something like three years ago I decided that the:work was important

8AA5'. - 31 - enough to have Dr. Wynder's studies backed up by somebody else and we engaged Bio-Research Consultants, headed by Dr. Homburger, for this purpose. This organ- each experiment is completed, we receive a very we11 written report on an exclusive basis. The work d'one by Bio-Research Consultants is performed in a very meticulous a major role in designingthe experiments that we wanted to have conducted'and, when .ization is well qualified in the field'of'mouse painting through experience gained on a Council br Tobacco Research grant. Furthermore, we have been able to exercise manner but„ on the negative side, it is very expensive, even though I doubt that we undertook to split the whole tar into fractions and each fraction was tested for its •--mice„ tumors appear in eleven to fifteen months. Starting a few years ago,, chemists could do the same work in our own l'aboratory any cheaper. Now I would like to very briefly summarize where we stand in connection with mouse painting investigations, irrespective of'whether the work is being, dbne by Dr. Wynder at Sloan Kettering, or by Dr. Homburger at B'io-Research Consultants which„ by the way, is located in Cambridge, Mass. As stated earlier when whole cigarette tar is applied'to the shaved backs.of '-'biological activity:. As a result.of this time consuming work it was found that mostt headed up by Dr. Spear&, have:split fraction B into three sub-fractions, which~we calll weight of't he whole tar. Carrying this type of work even further,, our own chemists, `s'of the activi'~ty resided'in a fraction known as "B", and which makes up only 2% by ' 1B1„ B2 and B3. They are of approximately equal weight, which means that each~ is only about .7I% of the original whole tar. Each sub-£raction has been painted on mice and the results that are!beginning,to come imsu$$est that most of the tumorigenic activity resides in sub-fractiomBli. This is of great interest since, among many other things, this fraction contains benzpyrene (a well known carcinogen), and„ much to our surprise,, DDD, a commonly us d' insecticide. In fact, this latter observation has infl'uenced' us to study DDDlas an independent factor. In other words, cigarettes have been made with DDD free tobacco

8/4/65 - 4 - and from tobacco to~which three known levels of DDD have been added'.. Tars f'rom,such, cigarettes are currently being painted on mice and there is already some evidencee that the insecticide is a promoter if not an initiator of mouse tumors.. While these studies.have:been going,on, Dr. Wynder, with our cooperation,, has: found that tar from Bright tobacco cigarettes is more carcinogenic to the mouse than that from Burley cigarettes;; that tar from 10Q:/ reconstituted tobacco is less carci- nogenic than that from ci'garettes.made from a normal blend; and that the impractical addition of certain salts to tobacco, such as copper nitrate, sodium nitrate and. l nickel acetate, bring about an elimination or, at least, a marked reduction in the number of mouse tumors. Up to this point I'have tried to give you the background'and present status of the animal experiments involviing;cigarette tar and cancer. Now, I would like to discuss briefly the future of such work and the first'thing;that we have to ask ourselves is how: important is it to devise a cigarette wtiose tar will be harmless to the mouse. This consideration must„ of'course, assume that such a cigarette:can be developed and I believe that our research people feel that it is entirely possible. in the first place such~an achievement would create a tremendous impression among,many scientists. and, in thesecond place, I feel sure that, with a little P R effort, it would receive .; a great deal of attention in the press„ since it would destroy one of' the two types of evidence used against the industry by anti-tobacco sroups.. If experiments currently: in progress demonstrate that the insecticide DDD.in the tar plays a role as almouse cancer promoter, I feel sure that this discovery will a1soo create algreat deal of excitement in scientific circles and with the public in general, as an extension of the ideas set forth by Rachel Carson in her book "Silent Sprino". In brief„ and without bias, I still feel, as I have felt over the past few years, C N that it is well worthwhile to try to develop alcigarette which,will give rise to tar -©' that is free from tumor causing properties when applied to the backs of mice. If GM „p -~Ca nothing else, such an achievement would' enhance the prestige of our R'esearch Division

i - 5 - and',, if handl''ed properly, increase the sale of our brands. - DDD'can;be eliminated'from tobaeeo andithereby from the smoke by legislation prohibiting the use of this insecticide on tobacco during its growing period'. H'owever, we must'depend!on~our own laboratory to further study the composition of'tar fraction. Bl in which, as!I have already pointed' out, most of' the mouse ' tumor causing, activity resid'es. It will be impossible to split B1 any further in quantities sufficient to apply to mice. We have not identifiediall of the individual compounds in this fraction by, any means but from those that we have identifiediwe doubt very muchithat,they can be re- moved' from the whole smoke by selective filtration as the cigarette is consumed. Therefore:, we propose to look for something,which can be addedl to, the tobacco and which will alter the combustion or'the cigarette in such, a way that the make-up! of fraction Bl will be significantly changed., If and when this is accomplished, the whole tar can be tested on mice to determine whether the desired' goal has been achieved. In other words, if this type of work is to be continued, I believe that in 1966 our attention will be d'irected toward the chemicalcomposition of BZ and'ways,of altering, its make-up„ with less emphasis on animal experimentation, except as a criteria of' ` r.~.°: ~ccomplishment. hope that I have:not bored you with this discourse and„ if you have any uestions or suggestions toioffer, I will be glad to entertain them.. I