Tobacco Documents Online

~--~ CID ADVANCE FOR RELEASE AFTER 12:00 NOON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1977 New York, N.Y.--Three Nobel Prize winners are part of a National Commissi on Smoking and Public Polic.y which will hold a series of open public forums in eight major cities to develop a public mandate for greater ERICAN CANCER'' SOCIETY NEWS SERVICE 777 TMIRO AVENUE- NEW YORK. N.Y. 10017 12121 371-2900 social and legislative action to halt cigarette-related disease and .~`-- - - -- - _--- _- . . . death. The ACS believes that the time is ripe for increased anti-smoking activities because a recent report by the Government's National Clearinghouse on Smoking and Health showed that between 1964 (the year of the Surgeon General's report) and 1975 there was a marked decrease in the proporation of adult cigarette smokers in the U.S. Furthermore, The Commission, which met for the first time here today, was set up because lung cancer will take the lives of some 98,0Q0 Americans ~ this year, and smoking trends among the very young point toan alarming problem in the.future. there are more than 30 million ex-smokers, and over 70 percent__of 71 o~Gc Ads_ S&, ~~ . Americar.s~favor increased smoking restrictions, indicating that stronger~ measures can meet wide acceptance and people can successfully give up a life-threatening habit, according to ACS. 001353'70 At a special press conference, Dr. David Baltimore, a Nobel Laureate from the Massachusetts Institute.of'Techno . . ~. ~ -.....:,....-...~........_.. .. -..~ 9i ..._.. ':As ...a..... - . . . . - ~ .. ..x.~~i ~ dA

-2- U.S. Surgeon Generals, Dr. Luther Terry and Dr. Jesse Steinfeld, and ~;AIZan Jonas, who chaired an ACS Task Force on Tobacco and Cancer, explained the commission's plan to gather public testimony on which to base stronger social and legislative action. At each forum, commission members will hear educators, community and political leaders, parents, smokers, non-smokers, scientists, and physicians who will discuss_such critical points as increasing taxes on high nicotine cigarettes; increasing controls over cigarette adver- tising; changing subsidies for tobacco farmers; ending the provision of smoking rooms in schools; printing stronger and more.prominent warning labels on cigarette packages. There also will be testimony from lung cancer and emphysema patients and theirr families. The Commission, comprising 25 men and women from science, medicine, industry, labor.and public affairs, will compile testimony and pertinent data, and then make specific recommendations for action to the ACS Board of Directors. 00135371 The forums will draw witnesses from all 50 states. The first forum will be held March 22nd in Los Angeles, the others: May 12th in Denver; May 17th in Seattle; May 19th in St. Louis; May 25th in.Chicago; June 2nd in Boston; June 14th in Atlanta and June 16th in"Philadelphia.' The Nobelists on the Commission are three: Dr. Baltimore; Dr. Salvatore E. Luria, Director of the Center for Cancer Research at MIT, and Dr. Robert Holley of the Salk Institu te, La Jolla, California. Other distinguished members are: Dr. Benjamin F. Byrd, J of Nashville Tennessee,'Past President of the ACS:

-3- '•Dr. Merlin buval of Tucson, Arizona, Vice President of the University of Arizona Health.Science Center; Charles Ebersol of Torrington, Conn., former Chairman of the ACS; Marshall Evans of Pittsburgh, Pa., former Vice Chairman of Westinghouse; Dr. Alice Huang of Boston, Mass., Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School; Mrs.* Robert Huff of Rome, Georgia, Chairman of the National Interagency Council on Smokin; and Health; Allan Jonas, of Los Angeles, Calif,, Chairman of the National Task Force on Tobacco and Cancer; George Kneeland of New York City, Chairman of the St. Regis Paper Company; Dr. Philip Lee of San Francisco, Calif., Professor of Social Medicine at the University of California School of Medicine; Baldwin Maull, of New York City, former Chairman of Marine Midland; J. Quigg Newton, of New York City, The Coaimonwealth Fund; Cornelius Owens of Atlanta, Georgia, former Executive Vice President-of AT&T; Mrs. Marlin Perkins of St. Louis, Mo., member of the Board, ACS; Dr. H. Marvin Pollard of Ann Arbor, Mich., Past President, ACS; Harvey Russell of Purchase, New York, Vice President Planning, Pepsi-Cola Co.; Dr. Robert Shank of St. Louis, Mo., Danforth Professor and Chief, Dept. of Preventive Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine; Dr. Scott Simonds of Ann Arbor, Mich., Department' - of Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan; Mrs. Marietta Tree of New York City, former U.S. delegate to the U.N.; Dr. Kerr White, of Baltimore, Md., Chairman, Dept. of Health Care Organization, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health; and William Wendel of Niagara Falls, New York, President, The Carborundum Company. ~~~~