Tobacco Documents Online

nstitute Newsletter iPREIPARED :FORYO'UR INFiORMATION BT THE INSTITUTE'',STNFF: 177! K STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON, D.C. 20006 • 2BSdM7{ Number 110 . November 11, 1974 WASH'd'NGTON NATIONAL CANCER'ADVISORY BOARD ChairmamRhoads appointed' &subcommittee to answer the P'resi- dent's request to review'by Dec. 1 scientific evidence that might war- rant govt., regulation of "'tar"'-nicotine,('Newsletter 109)., Included:, NCI's Gbri and Schneiderman, Hammond of the Cancer Society, Shubik, who chaired NCAB's abortive 1973 ad hoc committee on smoking & health, for- mer Surgeon General S'teiinfeld, Wynder of American Health Foundationiand the Clearinghouse's Horn. First meeting--another is set for Nov. 18-20--revealed that most members favored voluntary limitation by the mfrs,,, with. Shubik commentingion his "rather,difficult position"' because he and his ad hoc committee had found a lack of evidence for legislating "t"-n levels. Hammond was not sure "t"-n were the "worst" things in cigarette smoke, especially for heart disease. Several felt lowering "t"'-n might make people smoke more,, which, would do more harm than good,, said Hammond., Horn Ffavored'a gradual lowering by lawy Wynder a voluntary reduc- .tion within three_years to reach the current:1974 sales- weighted,average of,18.4' mg. "tar" and 1.27'mg. nicotine. Stezinfeld held to his usual hard line. Said Rhoads: "if we lose:this battle, we haven't lost the'war. We wi11: pro- pose a variety of' things so that Congress will accept the least onerous."' NCI:'s FIVE YEAR PLANi,, submitted last week to Congress, reveals that the current,,ti'S,million budl7et of the Smoking & Health,Program (under Gori's direction):is projected for $12 million by 1980,, No details. NCI Di- rector Rauscher's annual report,, also sent up last week, indicates tihat Cancer Control will be picking up at least part of the "educational" program of'th:e Clearinghouse (Newsletter 107). Again, no d'etails. ELECTIiON LEAVES A VACANCY'after Jan. 1 on Senate Consumer. Slibcommittee which,handles tobacco:regulatory legislation, if the 2-1 Democrat-Republican ratio isn"t,changed, with de- feat of Sen. Cook (R-Ky.), by Democratic Gov. Ford. House

~,. #; -2- Commerce Committee, which~ also has handled tobacco bills in recent years, faces a more severe shakeup with at least ten of its 44 members due not to reappear for one reason or an- other. Further changes can be expected when holdover or re- elected senators and representatives get new committee as- signments in Jan. Elsewhere in tobacco states,, veteran Sen., Ervin (D-N.C.) retires as chairman of the key Govt. Opera- tions Committee and' willl be replaced in the Senate by N.C. Atty. Gen. Morgan,. In S.C',., Rep. Young (R) was defeated. He had participated in two broadcast debates in the past year in support of tobacco. FIVE FURNITURE MFR. ASSNS. have decided1to seek court review of rejec- tion by the Consumer Product Safety Commission of their petitionito have all cigarettes:banned that are not self-extiinguiishing (Newsletter 1q7). COUNSEL for major tobacco companies are,sched'uled' to appear before U.S. District Court Judge Gasch next Thursday to ar- gue their case for dismissal of Sen. Moss' lawsuit to over- turn the CPSC ruling against h,is"'tar"'-nicotine regulatory petition. TI PRES1DENT'I4ORNEGAY wrote various advertising industry leaders to calil their attentiion to the National Cancer Advisory Boardisuggestion that cigarette advertising could be prohibited (Newsletter 1Im9,). Ad Age re- ported that Kornegay urged the ad industry "'to resiist any further ef- forts to restrict ad'vertising of any prodluct." The same story noted' that the,National Clearinghouse for Smoking & Health,"which,has been the focal point for eampaigns ta encourage people t'o stop smoking,, has been exi.l'ed to At'- Zcmta where it will be merged into a less visible branch of the Center~ for Di:sease Cbnt'rol." MED I A DR. JOSEPH~wAGONER„ director of field studies for the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health, appeared on a CBS-TV special about alleged perils of vinyl chloride andisaid that workers exposed to the controversial chem- ical are: experiencing, among other problems,, "'aidoubliing of the lung cancer and'.a doubling of' the lymphatic tumors"'found in the general population. THE MEDICAL EDITOR of Arizona Republic, l'eadingiPhoenix daily, reported on the smokiing-health review by Aviad'o in Executive Health, recently distributed by TI. The editor. wrote, "F'hoen- Tx__Yoctors see in,Aviado's report a need for additional and'stepped up research to determine the true role, if'any,, that ciga- rette smoking may play , in heart disease and l'ung, cancer.,°'. ..On the other hand, the Butte (Mont.) Standard editorially reviewed what it called the "junk maill"' received one morning, said "the gist"' of the Aviiado report "suggests that smokers should re- lax, the emotional benefit smoking;gives them may outweigh the risk of eancer;, emphysema, heart attacks,, etc. Now, that's more like the junk mail we're used to getting." `~' `

-3- RESEARCH ANALYST,JOHNiC. MAXWELL published his annual per capita beverage consumpti~on report: Trends of recent years continued in "73'--less coffee, milk and water; more soft drinks,, beer, tea, juices, distilled spirits and wine. RESEARCHERS AT Central Middlesex Hospital, Lond'on, studied blood carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) levels in ten volunteer smok- ers:who gradually changed from high to low "tar"-nicotine cigarettes. They conclud'edlthat while consumption increased on: changing from, high to low "'t"-n cigarettes, the COHb lev- els, nonetheless, showed a definite drop. LANCET, the British medical journal,, viewed possible hazards of aero- sol spray s with, alarm: "But what is propeZ2ed (and'who knows what this may be in a specific instance?) may be even more dangerous. The known substances include inert dusts, reszns„ lipids, proteins, vegetable gums,,metaZZic,saZts, and many other organic chemicals as well as the products of decomposition, bacterial or fungal growth,, and other potentially hazardous substances." PEOPLE BANK PARTICIPATION iniMinnesota:'s "D-Day"' (,for d'on't smoke), including lobby displays, anti- smokiing advertising, free lung function tests and'd:istribution of stop- smoking pliedge cards, brought ire fromiJosephiRobbie, executive diirec- tor of the Minn. Candy & Tobacco Distributors Assn. "The bankers have as. little reason to attempt to damag,e the business of their tobacco clients as they, iwould tolattempt to restore the Volstead Act to bring back Prohibition„"' he wrote, association members. HEALTH QR'GAN IZAT I'ONS OUT OF'FUNDS AND OUT OF THE PICTURE: Smoking Research-San Diego, a federally-funded anti~- smoking organization that for nine years tried'to "educate" people to quit cigarettes, closed its offices when U.S.govt.-issued checks stopped coming in, said the San Diego Union. ~ FO'RE IiGN THE BULLETIN, saidlto be a prestigious nationall magazine in Australia, carriedla cover story onn smoking-health inspired by the debate reopenedlin England by Burch as to whether smoking causes lung cancer., Excerpt: "The direct oonneota.on be- tween smoking and'cancer of the Zungs in fact turns out to be something of a modernn myth based not on any convinciixg scientifiic research but on the circumstanti'aZ evi- dence of a mass of statistics much,of which. . . turns out to be very wobbly indeed." A PROF. OF STATISTICS in Great Britain reportedly showed in a lecture how statistical data can lead to~false conclusions and cited a U.S. Public Health Service smoking study as ai prime example. He said that of 41,000 men questionedl, 29,000 reportedlto be smokers. The study concluded that on the aver- age smokers suffered from more chronic disease than nonsmokers. However,, the prof. said, the study also showed that there was wide variance in age distribution andlu:nemployment among all the men along with other factors that could criltically i~nfluence results:. The prof. concluded that while he doesn't sanctionismokiingi, great care ils still needed in checking as- sumptions made from such,statistical studlies.

r -4!- A,STRICT ADVERTISING BI'lNion tobacco products was adopted by the govt. of Norway as it ordered,, starting July 1, 1975,, a ban on all tobacco advertising including window advertisiing displays, even at tobacco stores. THE DISTRI~CT OF COLUMBIA ci~ty council gave pre- liminary approval to a committee report that recommended aibanion smoking in elevators and large retail stores., The committee report said, that "while the primary focus of the ((reguZati'on)). ..i's prevention of fire, it does not overlook the parallel benefit to the generaZ public heaZth,. . . Many persons are adversely affected by tobacco smoke in close quarters." NONSMOKER ISSUE. SARASOTA, Fla., county commissionivoted unanimously to ban, smoking in theaters, county offices, elievators:, certain stores and in public vehicles. IN.FT. LAUDERDALE, the city council voted, 5-0, to defeat a proposal that would have restricted smoking in certain public,pTaces.. SANTA MONICA,city council delayed action on~a measure to seg- regate smokers in public places pending consideration of spe- cific changes., WICHITA,, Kans., city commission instructed the city manager to preparee an ordinance that would prohibit smokiing; in certain public:places., IN CHICAGO the Environmental Lawyers Clinic asked the Illii- nois PoIllution Control Board to adopt a "Nonsmokers Bill of Rights" that would prohibit smoking in public places except specially designated areas. The director of the clinic gave the control board a petition for the measure signed by 300 Illinois citizens. He told the Chicago Tribune that 11 bill- lion cigars and 580 billion cigarettes are smoked each year and "that is approximately one billion pounds of burning tobacco., That,is certainly a major air polllutant." A NEW YORK:TIMES REPORTER was off to monitor effectiveness of the city"s new smoking regulations., He wrote that "the law seemedlno more effec- tive than those against jaywalking and littering.,"' N.Y:.C. Health Com- missioner Bellin was seen in a "nose to nose argument" with a woman iin front of a1supermarket. (:BeliTin was on his way in to personally post no-smoki'ng signs). Bellin told1the woman that by the sound of her voice "you'd be better off not to smoke. And it is my business if you blow smoke in others" faces,, or in my face." Said the woman, "Let them wear gas masks." The reporter discovered that she was 7'01years old and had been,smoking for at least 50'years. MORE BUTTONS, POSTERS and other gimmiicks:are coming from yet another antismoking:group: Non Smokers Alliance. The Presi- dent of:the Denver-based organization told the Rocky Mountain News: "My college roorwsate was a chain smoker who died of mouth and throat cancer. His wiife was a nonsmoker who breathed his smoke for 30 years. Nowshe's in the hospit'aZ with Zung cancer." ~ ' (710 BARNES HOSPITAL in St.. Louis has cut down on vending machines and is considering smoker segregation among patients, according to the Globe- ~ Democrat. Iit qluoted Dr. John A. Pierce,, director of pulmonary dlis- ~ O= eases at Washington iD School of Mediicine, as saying, "The treacherous thing,is that the cigarette manufacturers have made tobacco smoke more easily toler- ated, so you get more of it down into your Zungs.,"