Tobacco Documents Online

C0'NCER'N'ING' THE' "CO'MP'REHENSIVE S MOIfING P'R'EVEN TION ACT O F' 1918'2'" G.N. Schrauzer, Phi:D. La Jol]1a, California I aim P'rofessoir olf Ch emis try a t the University o f . If California, S'an Diego., I hold a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University o f' Munich and am the president and f ounder o f the International Association of Bioinorganic Scientists. I am a member of several scienitific societies, including the • Rmeriican Chemica l Socie t.y, th e Association of Clinica l S'cien- tists, and the American Pulblic He alth As sociation. I am the author of' approximately 200 reseairch publications and have edited 2 books.. My main research interests are in cancer-prevention, cancer epid'emiology, , trac e mineral s in huma n an d anima 1 nutr i- tion, and various f ields olf' experimental chemistry. I have . . , done pioneering work on the prevention of cancer by thie essen- tial' trace mineral seleni!ua andi.win 1978' received a special .awardd from the Santa Qara•Sect'ion of the Atnerican Cancer Society.. As a chemist, cancer researcher and' Ameti'can Ci tizen I wish to, comment upon thie "Comprehensive Smoking Prevention Act O C.~ N. CJ C1' ~. d

of 1982"I recently introduced into U'.S. Congress. In this Act, i t is s tated', among o ther thiings, that "'smoking i s the niumber one cause of' lung cahcer in th-e United States". In my opinion, what rolle, if- any, smoki'ng plays in the causation of' cancer, including lung cancer„ has still to b e determined. Those who claim smoking, causes cancer rely upon thee reported statistical association and ignore thie inconsistencies of the smoking causation theory in the scientific literature. For example, to date, no one hals ever been able to produce lung cancer i n 1 aboratory a ni!nals t hrough e xposure t o f r esh, w1hole cigarette smoke. Moreover„ thie vast majority of smokers never develop! lung~ cancer and there are serious inconsistencies, in the epidezniological evidence and dose-response relationships. For e xample, a Jaipanese miale s moking 50 c igarettes per day has a lower risk of dying, from lung cancer than a British smoking doctor smoking only 1-14 cigarettes per day. _ In addition,, no ingredient or combination of' ingre- dients, as found' in tobaicco smoke, has been shown to cause human lung cancer. Tobacco smoke is a very complex mixture olf thousands o f ingre1ients-. Some o f these i ngredients, i n i sola- tion, have been reported to be carcinogenic in test animals. However, th~is~ does~ no~t~ me~an t~hat~ tobacco smoke is~, harmful to, humans. Compounds that are carcinogenic 2- in test animals, when C ~ . ~ ~ MA

I .' mortaliti'es and other variables o f' 1 ife-s tyle and d ie t. For , . exampTe; the lung cancer mortalities are correlated with~ the per capita i ntakes o f s ugar and m iIk„ and wi th the c onsumption of' seafoodis., -It also has been repeatedly suggested and recent- ly reaffirmed' that the consumption of' diets rich in pro-vitamin. A (carotene) may have lung cancer protecting effects. The '"f'indings"' in the "Comprehensive Smoking P'reven- tion Act"' hiave not been proven.. Moreover, passag,e of the Act will divert attention from other etiologic leads to the disvan- tage of thie American Public and the- progress olf the health sciences.

..r ~' .~ ~. . I applied! in'isoLationr have ~een found to be anti-carcinogenic when applied in combination with each other. Since i t i s pro- balble thiat the many hundreds' of compounds present in smoke interact with each other„ it is highily artificial to focus upon the effects of any one ingredient or combination of ingredients in isolation from, thi e others . It ha s long been known tha t cer- tain smoke constituents act as anti-carcinogens in test ani= mals. Fo r exampTe, tobacco belong s t o the selenliulm accumul a- ting group of plants aind' selenium has been shown to possess ant i-carcinogenic properties., ASso, constituent s o f cigarette smoke previously thought t o ble l ack ing a ltogether i n c arcinoge- nic activity have recently been found to be anti-carcinogenic when applied with, true carcinooens in test anlimals. Cancer - is an extremely canpTex, mu!ltifactorial disease. Studi es indicate that many factors, other than smok- ing, are statistically associated with cancer. Some of' these factors are familial predisposition, exposure to tumor viruse's and other biological causing agents, exposure to, ionizing radiation and industrial c-arcinogens, diet, exogencus' environ- mental factors and stress. Further, s tudies i ndicate that a number o f a gents nor- mauly present in foods may have activating, effects on tumor, v~ irus e~~s~~ a nd t~~h~~at th ere~~ i s a n a s~s~oc~~i~at i o~n between l ung~ c~ancer~ ... ~ .. FA -3-