Tobacco Documents Online

1 F MEMORANDUM February 1, 1977 TO: Horace Kornegay FROM: Charles Waite SUBJECT: ACS "National Commission on Smoking and Public Policy" The scientific portion of the newly formed American Cancer Society "National Commission on Smoking and Public Policy" consists of three Nobel Prize winners -- one former S'urgeon General of the Public Health Service; one former medical director of the Veterans Administration; two former assistant secretaries for Health, Department of Health, Education and Welfare; three preventive medicine specialists; a virologist (wife of Dr. Baltimore); two former American Cancer Society presidents and a chairman of a task force for the American Cancer Society; and a Ph.D. chemist on the AFL/CIO's Council for Professional Employees. Of the three Nobel prize winners, the youngest, Dr. David Baltimore, Is the most outspoken on smoking and health (see attached press release). He is equal.ly outspoken about the character of the American diet (fat) and its unsalutory impact on the incidence of heart disease. Dr. Baltimore is a cancer researcher, but his specific field is virus particles and related enzymes in the search for a cause of certain cancers ("RNA dependent DNA polymerase). Nobel prize 1975 - shares with Dr. Temin; same subject. - A Dr. Salvador Luria (Nobel Prize 1969) is also a virologist, but additionally is an expert in radiation effects and genetics. Dr. Robert W. Holley is basically a chemist, specializing originally in research on plant and soil chemistry, but later working in molecular biology at Salk Institute. Dr. Holley won the Nobel Prize (shared in medicine and physiology in 1968 for his work on the role of enzymes in cellular genetics and development. The above three have one common point of contact, specifically the Salk Oo Institute at La Jolla. - ~ W The two former Assistant-Secretaries for Health, Department of Health, ~ Education and Welfare, are Merlin Duval and Philip Lee. Duval (71-72) ~ is a surgeon who is currently Vice President of the University of . Op 1~ Arizona Health Science Center. He was a critic of the Kennedys' NHI

'~y l M `emorandum Page 2 February 1, 1977 plans; and at the 1972'Hearings on smoking a health, he declared "all ci.garette smoking is dangerous and an unreasonable health hazard for smokers and non-smokers alike." Lee (67-68) is currently Chancellor at the University of California Medical Center and a former Director, National Institute Mental Health. He is vocal about air pollution in general and at the 196'Hearings stated that one-fourth of all cancer and heart disease is due to cigarette smoking and therefore preventable. Of the three front men whose purpose is to lend credibility to the- Commission, Baltimore appears to be the most political and has spoken out previously on smoking and heaith. The remainder are a coalition of American Cancer Society and Health Education and Welfare (U.S. Public Health Service). None of the members of the Commission is engaged nor has been engaged in specific research on smoking and health (i.e. lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease, etc.) It is surmised that the three general preventive medicine experts will relate the-statistical/epidemiological story of predicted lung cancer, etc. CLW/dh