Tobacco Documents Online

f PRE'IARE',D SY THE''. INSTITUTE STAFF TO INFORM THE INDUSTRYOF NEWSWORTHY. DEVELDPMENTS Number 129 A'ugust 12, 197'5 WASHINGTON "HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF'SMOKINGk 1975," the unusually late ninth report to Congress on. smoking and health from the iD.S'_ Department of Health, Education and Welfare,was~released July 30. It was accompanied by a request to Con- gress to ban,the manufacture and sale of cigarettes exceeding what lame duck Sec. Weinberger said are "considered excessively hazardous levels of tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, and' other ingredients shown to be injurious to health." TI quickly reacted that HEW recommendedisimilar legislation liast year but Congress was unable:to find scientific justification for its con- sid'eration. The report summarizes recent research in cancer, cardiovas- cular disease, respiratory disease and has a new section on, "involuntary smok,ing."' TI saidithat HEW had failed to take account of all the pertinent research of the past year and •.-agai~n had drawn totally unsupportable inferences from the research it did look at, citingi, as an example, the depart- ment"s use of research,on carbon,monoxide levels obtainedd under extreme laboratory conditions. _ .. ..,- , .. _ . . -., LATE ON'THE DAY'OF RELEASE, Weinberger was interviewed by the N8C'radi~o network and asked to explain the report. He said: "Well', i't is a personal suggestioni and'recomdnendat'ion that I have made to the Congress in transmitting thee regular report..." Almost in the same breath, he continued the qualifi- cation: "We suggested that the--I did--suggested that the Congress should'regu- late the levels of'tar and'nicotine and these hazardous ingredients that are in cig- arettes.° The interview was ended with a qiuestion as to whether Wein- berger had serious hopes that the government would actually ban the manufacture of cigarettes with the "highest levels of tar and nicotine." After a bit of verbal footwork, he, answere&: ...I don't have any idea whether it wi11' or not.,"' An hour later the same network aired remarks of TI's Kloepfer, who said: "The Department of Health, Ed'ucation,and We3fare took a doctrinaire position more than 10 years ago on the subject, a position whi'ch had been recommended b'y an ad-

visory committee. It was the first time in history that the cause of'an illness had' been decreed'by a government committee, and'in turn, by a government department." Rloepfer added',, "What has happened since is,simply a marvel'ous consistency, on thee part of the Department of Health, Education and We3fare. That, however, does not make real what some people choose to believe is real'." r THE!REPORT DREW,a broadside from four North Carolina congress- meni. Sen. Helms (RI) said he was "confident that the President will stick by his position of last October ((Newsletter 109)) when he, as- sured'me that Secretary Weinberger's views were persona3'and not repre- sentative of'the Ford administration's position." Rep. Jones (D) de- clared the request pointed up renewed efforts by the federal government to "interfere in the private lives of American citizens who enjoy smoking and who should'have a choice of brands." R_ ep., Foun- tai'n (D) called the,report "just one more in a series of one-sided reviews.,"' Rep. Henderson (D)i said, "There is absolutely nothing, new in this report to warrant the conclusions reached." HELMS AGAIN REVIEWED hi~s communications with, the White House during an Aug. 1 Senate speech and said'of the research i~n the new report: "Mr. Weinberger would also do well to take note of the fact that a11' these 'studies' that throw him into a tizzy are highly;debatable in their conclusions. It' is all right with me if Secretary Weinberger has fixations about tobacco> but it would be far better if he tempered them with a bit more cosmronsense and objectivity,, not to men- tion fairness.,"' TH'AT'SAME DAY Sen. Moss (D-Utah)', introduced legislation to accomplish the HEW objective while bemoaningi, "In each Congresss since 1971, I have introduced legislation to:have ceiiings set for maxi- -~!"mum permissible levels of tar, nicotine, andlother hazardous components of cigarettes. In each Congress this proposal, whose soundness is docu- mented by t'housands of pages of medical st'udies,:is ignored."' Moss made no mention,of his own hearings (Special Reports, Feb.. 2, 3, and 10, 1972,and News'Special,, Feb., 1972): held on the subj'ect. SINGLE COPIES OF THE 1978'REPORT are available through the National. Clearinghouse for Smoking and Health, Center for Disease Control, At- lanta, Ga., 30333. The printed version should be available through the Government PrintinglOffice later in the year. ~}^ ('Ed'i~tor's note: Also see "'Media" section for more on the k 11975 report.) REPORTERS COVERING THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSIONifiguratively scurried about, puttin:g;buckets under leaks--and came up with,confusing,, vague and even contradictory stories indicating that FTC had decided to charge six major cigarette companies with inadequate displays of a health warn- ingistatement in elements of'their advertising. Confronted with embarrassing headlines in Ad ~e, the Wall Street Journal and aispate of other,dailies, the companies authorized aispokesman to,release a 62-page statement demon- strating their compliance with FTC's warning requirements. They had provided the document to the FTC last M'arch. Essentially, the Commission now~appeared to be contending that a health warniing,should have appeared on vending machine display panels, that it r

-3- should be larger on billboards, that its margins are too close to its type, that it,sometimes is too small in relation to the space in wh,ich. itt appears and sometimes does not appear in the same languago as the advertising copy. SEVERAL FIRMS, quoted in the Journal, flatly claimed'total compliance with warning display:requirements.. FTC reported- ly plans to seek Department of Justice approval to seek civil penalties, but its timetable was uncertain. ANOTHER LEAK splashed tobacco--and other major consumer industries. UPI, and then other reporters, got hoTd of a 268-page HEW health blue- print which said the best way to make Americans more healthy is.to con- trol their behavior more closely. It recommended that Uncle Sam cut the alcohol in liquor, the "tar" in cigarettes, the speed of autos„ the marketing of chem,icals, etc., etc., etc. The Washington Post gave it page one, the New York Times buried it and the Walil Street Journal ignored it. The Post reported that HEW'Asst. Sec. for Healith Cooper endorsed an- other recommendation in the report--ending tobacco "subsid- ies" in the interest of health. TOBACCO EXEMPTION in "CPSC Improvement Act" (Newsletter 128) remains unresolved as debate in the House of Representatives was incomplete at the time Congress recessed'until resumption of legislative business on September 3. MEANWHILE,, the six major cigarette mfrs. gave notice that they"11 appeal the District Court decision which ordered the commission to take up the Moss petition,to regul'ate "tar"- nicotine content. And the District Court turned down a re- quest for reconsideration of its other decision which dis- missed a proposal by furniture mfrs. that cigarette burning rather than upholstery flammability be regulated., NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE advisory committee on cancer control and re- habilitation is considering these recommendations from~its subcommittee on preventionc • Try to eliminate smoking by TV'performers. • oppose "subsidies" to tobacco growers. • Find out what other govt., agencies are doing or can do to stop tobacco use., r Developimore recommendations based on June's 3rd World Con- ference on Smoking and Health. • Consider supportingia federal~ cigarette tax hike and payments to tobacco farmers to diversify, • Find out if NCI cooperation wi:thithe National Clearinghouse on Sfioking and Health should be pursued. MOSS REFRAINNED,from offering hi~s amendment to eliminate any federall subsidies to tobacco during recent debate on the agriculture appro-

-4- priations bill,noting that the Senate had already considered the issue (Newsletter 120), earlier in the year. He did say, "...1et me make it: clear that I continue to oppose the tobacco assistance and crop subsidy,program:" He then,outlined,a comprehensive seven-point anti-tobacco program to whi~ch,he said he would devote hi,s energy in the future. ROBERT'LEVY has assumed the directorship of the National Heart and Lung Institute on an actiingibasis. Levy, promoted from chief of the heart and vascular division„ must complete civil serviice clearance before being sworn in officially. MEDIA following chronology. THE RELEASE of the HEW smokiing,report provided a profil'e of a press debacle.. Consider the: After numerous inquiries, TI received~notificationiat 11':00 a.,m., on July 301fromithe public information office of HEW that the 1975 report was availabie.. By 12:1'5 a copy was at TI and be- ing analyzed. At 1:,5q:TI staff began dictating a statementt to wire services., THE'FIRST TO RECEIVE the statement from TI was UPI which had moved its lead' story on the report at 1:13. UPI ran a message on its wire at TI's request:: "The,Tobacco Institute has a statement on smoking-- 295'-8'434." But the wire service did not move the statement iltself un- til 3:23', cut to two~sentences and tied to a 5-paragraph report on an Andrews:Univ. (t+47chl.) audiologist's clinical study pertaining to thee effect of smoking on,the middle ear. ASSOCIATED PRESS did not move its first story until 2:19.. AP made two additions at 2::22 and 2::251. The latter add conr tained TI''s statement. Nice Package. Right? Wrong:' The first 3 words of the AP dispatch said, "The Ford adinanistra, tion..." ((not Weinberger or HEW)). Resulting headlines across the country, just mentioning 2 for examples:: "Ford Asks Ban On H,igh-Tar Cigarettes" and "Fbrd Seeks Tar, Nico- tine Controls.," SECOND PROBLEM developing with the AP story was that local editors trimmedlit for makeup purposes before they got to the TI statement. The Washington Star,, using: UPI materiaTs,, thought the report was im- portant enough to bump a sensational investigation off the front pagpof its night final but did not gp to the trouble to use the TI reac- tion,statement., (There were a lot of newspapers called by TI on July 3'1:)' Next day, however, the Washington Yost gave page one coverage to The Institute. TV'EVENING NETWORK 'COVERA'GE: ABC tersely noted the new re- port was out. CBS embellished their report with~mentioniof report's new section,on nonsmokers and TI's reaction,. NBC preceded its report with one of a series:of specials on can- cer, showing a surgeon performing a lung:operation. The cor- respondent's commentary included, "Whether Congress should enact further legislation to restrict smoking,, evidence that something shoul'd' be done is overwhelhu:ng: Ninety-thousand people get lung cancer each year. Eighty percent of all lung cancer is caused by smoking. And 19 out of 20 people who get lung cancer will' die." c

-5- IRVING LEVITAS, Hackensack physician, appearing on ABC's "AM'"' TV show: to promote his book, "You Cam Beat The Odds On A Heart Attack": 'smoking is probably the worst thing, any:middTe-aged'American can do." WNEW-TV IN NEW'YORK piicked,up where WOR-TV and WCBS left off',, beginning,a month-long ""stop smoking" clinic on the air. BANNINGITHE~BUTT--in more ways than one: Minne- sota no-smoking law--enacted June 2 andlthe most restrictive to date anywhere--flatly prohibits smoking!in every kind of enclosed public place, including a1L restaurants, except bars, and'unless smokers and nonsmokers are segregated. NONSMOKER ISSUE Enti~re bars canibe designated by their managements as smok- ing places, but signs to that effect must be posted at en trances. UPI reported that a question has arisen as:to whether smokiing!maght be permitted throughout a restaurant which has its own bar. Meanwhile, the state"sihealith dept. said it will issue enforcement reg- ulations after holding a yet-to-be-scheduled public hearing, gpverningi the kinds of signs which will have to be posted throughout the state, and whether in dimly lit places they'11 have to be illuminated, and so forth. The same legislature enacted--and the same governor signed~-- a liaw providing five-year imprisonment for anyone who touches .another's buttocks without permission. WASHINGTON STATE'RESTAURANTS were exempt from no-smoke regulations (!Newsletter 119) but the,restaurant assn. cooperated with the state Lung Assn. in requestingithat its membership comply voluntarily with the regulation. A survey shows that less than 80 member locations-- mostly in urban areas of:the state--offer facilities:for nonsmokers, ranging from full-time prohibitions to nonsmoking nights, rooms or sections. ADVOCATE OF NO-SMOKING RULE during York (Pa.) city council meetings failed once (Newsletter 128) then tried again at the next meeting with~a softer resolution1which said smokers -'^ wou2d'be "subject to eviction or,removal from the room." The measure passed three-to-two, and the two dissenting memr bers then lit cigarettes in defiance., A,San Bruno (Calif.) City Council member lit a cigarette after his colleagues voted,a ban on smoking dhring meetings, and said, "This ac- tion is in direct violation of my,rights..,.You can take whatever action you want. If,I go to jaiI, then I"31' go to jail." His actilon prodticedi a compromise. The issue, would be put on the city ballot next March if he would refrain from smoking during meetings. He agreed. TENTATIVE FiPPROVALigiven, to a Flint (2yIichl. ) ordinance to prohibit smok- ing in some types:of stores,, public areas of grocery stores and thea- ters, elevators, and require the designation of a no-smoking area where more than:50 people are gathered for religious, recreational', political or social purposes. Penalties for violations range up to 90 days in jail and $300 i'n fines.

-6- SAN DIEGO COUNTY (Caliif. ) Boardlof Supervisors asked thee county counsel's office to draft a proposed revision of its existing no-smoke ordinance (Newsletter 90). The measure would expand the present ord'inance to cover elevators, mu- seums,buses and service lines at stores and banks in the un- incorporated areas of'the county. ORANGE'COUNTY (Cali'f.), bam(Newsletter 12'5) on smoking in designated public:places:and county offices hit a snag when a county employee served notice that where they smoked constituted ai"working condition"' and was therefore negotiable with,county administrators. MILWAUKEE JOURNAL reported that a locall tavern:owner has fpr- bidden smoking on the premises andlaTso decided not to selll a brand of'beer made by a local subsidiary of a tobacco com- pany. "CURMUDGEON'S COMPLAINT," wriltten by James Page in a column for the Aug. Smithsonian,, notesr, 1.. Most airlines now segregate smokers andi nonsmokers; 2. If one has the right not to be irritated by smoke then one has the right not to be irritated by noise; 3. Most sharp, piercing screams and other forms of sudden human noise come from children under five; and he concludes, "Airlines might contemplate establishing:three zones: smokingy,nonsmoking and kindergarten." PEOPLE JONATHAN RHOADES, M.D., former American Cancer Society president andimember of the National Cancer Advisory Board, refused to debate a Tobacco Institute spokes- man in response to a Philadelphia TV station''s invitation., Instead, he watched her interview, thenishowed up to respond. But when the moderator told'him he hadn't seen any hardievidence of harm to non- smokers, Rhoadies made a surprising admission: "z do not have any hard evi- dence in that direction either. To my knowledge, it is not, in fact, actually harmful." HONORED by the Los Angeles affiliate of the American Heart Assn, for "pioneering efforts in cardiovascular diseases": Richard J. Bing, M.D., member of the scientif'ic:advisory board of the Council for Tobacco Research,., TOBACCO SUBSTI'TUTES PiDBLICPITION of the report of, the I~ndependent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health-- the Hunter Committee--drew wide attention im the British,press. Most articles'gave a short history of the origin of the committee and a summary of the guidelines for a three-stage process for testing to- bacco substitutes'. After such satisfactory testing, said the Londbn Times, "pseudo-cigarettes...wilil appear in the shops." The Times article also saidithe Hunter guidelines will apply to additives in to- bacco which are restricted in the:United Kingdom. AND,, DR., DAV'ID OWEN, U.K. Minister of State for Health,, told Parliament that companies wishing to market any tobacco pro- ducts containing an additive would "abide by, the guidelines re- commended'in the Hunter Report in all aspects." He added, "My Depart- ment will also be asking companies for qualitative and quantitative inr formation concerning,additi'ves currently in use in each of their products." BBC'Radiio: carried an interview of aitobacco research director who said his company had passed the first two steps but the last step must await

-7~- thecommittee"sdecision.: ASH°s reaction to the report was that it was "disappointingly vague" and the, guidelines': "seem willing to:permit marketing withh inadequate test'ing;, inadequate monitoring and inadequate legislative control." The Sund'a. Telegraph~called the report one of the most significant events in the tobaccolindustry„ not just in Britain but around the world,and noted, "Hunter will be used;in other countries too--thus its signi'f- icance.,"' Lancet editorialized: "In its guidelines for tobacco substitutes, the Hunter Corrmu7ttee draws free3y on the knowledge of the tobacco industry's own,scienti'sts. The,resul't is a document commendable both for common sense and'for precision." THE'R'EPORT ITSELF (availabTe from Her Majesty's StationeryOffice in London for 50p).carri~ed'a careful disclaimer--that the "responsibility"' for "healith:consequences'rests with the manufacturers," and that the committee will only indicate that subst3tutes "may be;no more damaging" and "could' prove to be less`than tobacco. Three stages'of marketing prerequisites--what a company: "should" do--are outlined: Five pages specify chemical andd animali tests; another page describes short-term human studies' of "'irritant characteristics" andianother five pages prescribe longer term animal experiments. All of these results would be analyzed,by the committee. RESEARCH GORDON AND' THOM of the National Heart and Lung Institute published an analysis in Preventive. Medicine of heart disease death rates--rising before L960y a"flat. trend" during the: ' 6o "s, and a decline since 1968'. "The recent decline in cigarette smoking among adultsy" they said, "should have:led'to a drop...How- ever, it is chiefly men who have quit...,Whereas the decrease in CHD mortality since 1968 has occurred'equallig in men and women." NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE researchers Blot and Fraumeni re- ported in Lancet that lung cancer mortality is'sig~irficantly high (up to eight times normal) in 36 U:.S. counties where ~ lead, copper and zinc smelters are l'ocated. "The smoking habits of workers in copper smelters were not unusual," they said, adding that "there is no reason to suspect" greater tobacco consumption in the smelting counties. SEN~. 6RAVEL (D-Alaska) inserted 11 pages of material in the Congress- ional Record during Energy Research & Development authorization debate in which John Gofman, emeritus prof. of inedical,physics at the U. of CaLif., hypothesizes that smoking interferes with cIearance:of plutonium, particles intialed'from the air and, hence, lungicancer. The physician-physicist forecasts more than17 million "extraa fatal lung cancers" per generation of Ui.S. males under cur- rent regulatory standards for plutonium exposure. STRESS, AMERICAN STYLEI,, is a major contributing factor in heart disease, according to a study by California epidemiologists~, reports the New York.

-8- Times. They classified San Franciso area Japanese-Ameri~cans by those who retained their traditional culture and those who pursued the Amer- ican life-style. The westernized group had!2 1/2 times greater heart disease incidence. The project director said neither diet nor the u«- sual coronary risk factors of smoking, cholesterol, blood pressure or weight couldicompletely explain the increased heart disease rate. Funding,the study: Nationall Institutes of Health and Amer- i~can Heart Assn. MEDICAL TRIBUNE said Stephen Zyzanski and Boston U., associates care- fully determined degrees of arterial blockage in 95 middle-agpd men, also rated them on personality characteristics, and reported that the greater the blockage the more they tended to be "Type A", hard-d'riving, persons. No mention of smoking. TWO BRIiTISH STUDIES reviewed in New England Journali of' Medi~- cine suggest that a woman on biirth control pills has a14 1/2 times greater risk of heart attack. The danger reportedly zooms upward if she has other heart-risk factors such as cig- arette smokingi, diabetes, high blood cholesteroli or blood pres- sure and is obese., The,reviewer cautions however, that "further studies are needed." PHILADELPHIA STORY: Continuing debate with,Hahneman Medical College's Weiss in Amerilcan,Review,of Respiratory Disease on significance of animal experiments in smokingiresearch, Hickey and his U, of Penna. colleagues tell why they doubt the authenticity of Auerbach's dog work and add: "We reiterate that ecologically realistic animal studies have yenera:I1'y failed to support the hypothesis that exposure to fresh,tobacco smoke causes Iung cancer. ( (Their emphasis. )')~" BEAUTICIANS INiREGU.LAR CONTACT with hair dye have a 10-fo1d excess risk of'lung cancer, a UC Berkeley researcher told the London Observer., Dr. Steve Selvin said his figures covered onSy 3',0001deaths in one California county but he's sure they''re significant. Using a new Berkeley-designed chemical test system, he:said he has found 90 percent of hair dyes to be mutagenic and therefore probably carcinogenic. But, he to:TdiThe Observer, it may be that beauticians smoke more than other women., INDUSTRY WARREN GREGG has been elected president and chief executive officer of Helme: Products, Inc.,, succeeding Ernest Whitneyrwho retired'in July. 'n. ,n J V! ###