Tobacco Documents Online

nstitute Newsletter PREPARED FOR YOUR INFORMATION BY'TNE'INSTITUTESTAFF . 1777ak',STREET, .,N.W., WASHINGTON, D.C.: 20006'. • 2064434 Number 103 July 29, 1974'. VIEWPOINTS: In the foreword to the recently re- leased report on alcoholi & health (Newsletter 102), HEW Secretary Weinberger refers to the "tnisuse of'aTcohol." By, contrast, the "mis" prefix never appears inisimilar pronouncements about tobacco. Weinberger further writes, "'I am reassured that the majority of Americans consume alcohol with no adberse effects." The very worst of smoking-health statistics would support the same statement about to- bacco, but it is never made by govt. officialls. WWSHI'NG'TON REPORTS'CAME OUT onia "National Conference on Cancer Preven- tion and Detection" held by National Cancer Institute last year., Berlin, of the NCI, reporting on a lung cancer panel, said,, "The relationship to the smoking of cigarettes appears to be well established." He said his panelists recommended legislation 1) to reduce "t"-n, 2) to limit public smoking, 3) .to "provide some mechanismiwhereby those individuals i~nn industrial high-risk groups would be protected in their,em- ployment rights and 4) to raise cigarette taxes and earmarkk the proceedLs for antismokingi "education" andl "screening and diagnostic studies of'cigarette smokers." Panelists,, in- cludiing,some familiar names in the smoking controversy, were Fishnman of U1. of: Calif., Fontanaiand' Miller:, of Mayo,, Frost and Levin, of Johns Hopkins,, andiSchneidierman of NCI. EBONY ran a lengthy feature on "The Rise of Cancer in Black Men" and said that cancer is killing blacks:at the highest rate recorded in recent history.. Ac- cording to the,American Cancer Society, Ebony saidi, more than twice as many blacks are dying from cancer now,than did 30 years ago and the in- cidence of lung cancer i'n black men has soaredifar above any other seg- ment of the population i~n this country. Dr. Marvin,Schneiderman, as- sociate scientific director at the National Cancer Institute was asked why: MED I IY "The reason., ..is related to two things: hora we live and how we work. After the onset of World War II, there was some i'ncrease in the income

-2~ of black men and a general increase in prosperity. One of, the first things people do when they,get a ZittZe more money is smoke. The in- crease in,smoking by black men has been very, g,reat', al'though, I must' emphasize that there are no hard data to support that statement. An- other thing i's that,, by and:l'arge, black men have the dirtiest jabs in this country. They are in the dirty,, dusty aspects of i'r¢dustry,, surrounded'by industrial toxins and rvorking,closer than whites, for instance; to open hearth furnaces in steel mills. Combine empZoyment in such jobs with increased smoking and you get' two effects working, to- gether to make a substantial increase: in lung cancer." MAYBE THE SUN-TIMES feature story writer didn"t realize the profundity of the attending physi~cian's remark she quoted in her story about the Lincoln Park Zoo's leopard being given radiation therapy in aimajor lo- cal hospital for oral cancer. Said the doctor, "If the cancer were in the mouth of a human, I'wouZd say,smoking caused it. But' I really don't know why this happened." CH,ILDRENi"S TELEVIiSION WORKSHOP previewed' its 26-pa'rti~s'eries, "Alive and' Well",, to be shown this year on public tv outlets. Wrote one reviewe r, "The production employs the snappy song, dance and'vignette method of the children's shows but deals with aduZt'-type probZems such as smoking,, high bl'ood pressure;, alcoholism and obesity."' IN A 25-IINCHINEWS STORY, the New,Orleans States & Item printed all the economic data on the tobacco industry it got from TI's "'Some Facts About Tobacco" including two paragraphs about the industry's commitment to sci- entific research. TI, sent "Facts" to weeklies in:major tobacco states and to every daily in the country. IN AN EDITORIAL,, the Washington Star-News criticized USDA for spending $14'0,0'00 to advertise foreign cigarettes that use American tobacco and for "'shipping $25 million worth~of tobacco to poor countries, mainly Indochi~nai, under the sub- sid!iized''food for peace' program;." (Ed. Note: The money figures~are inaccurate and the information as used' is veryy misleading). The editorial called the program "madness" and went, on to say:: "But think of the backlash as coughing gener- ations of our overseas customers become aware of the billions of little health,hazards we have exported to promote a most expendable segment of American agriculture." "'SIGNS'ARE EM'ERGING',that mortality from coronary heart disease is start- ing to l'~evell off or even decline not only in the United States but also iniEurope and Australia,„" said Medical Tribune., SM'OKERS'ARE NOT SEXY andlquitting the habit can be a quick cure for infertility, said' the Long,Beach (Calif.) Press Telegram in a long story about the al'leged hazards of smoking cigarettes. The story went on to accuse cigarettes as the cause of wrinkles in women, fires inihouseholds and ill healthh for nonsmokers. hSEARCH SMOKING/HEALTH--NOT CONTROVERST~AL?' "The nico- tine of tobacco might play an important role in preventing lung cancer in cigarette smokers," said the lead to a Los

-3- Angeles Hera1'd-Examiner news story. A team of researchers at Jefferson Medical College, Phila., said the story, concluded in a report to:the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science that "nicotine. ..de- creases the carcinogenic action of Benzopyrene" (a chemical in cigarette smoke that's commonly accusediof being a cancer causer). THE ROLE OF GENETIC FACTORS in lung cancer and emphysemaiand the possible influence of nicotine on,fetal growth are amongi 12' new scientific studies that have just been funded, accord'- ing to an announcement from The Council for Tobacco Research- USA. CTR said the new awards bring to about 500 the number of original grants and contracts supported by the council since 1954',. The total CTR research allocation to date is more than $28'million. NEW YORK' POST reported that two scientists:have released data indicating that air pol'luti~on killed 108,000 people in NYC in the past ten~years.Post said the study set off a behind-the-scenes "furor" because some be- lieve it,also shows that,one of'the nation's toughest polTution~control laws has been worthless. Schimmel of Albert Einstein College of Medi- cine and Murawski of the State Dept. of Environmentali Conservation stud- ied' 9'0ai, 000 deaths between 1963'-1~972 and estimated that 12% of the deaths, 28 a day, had been caused,by the city's "foull" ai'r, said the. Post. The researchers conclude&that despite a 60% drop in levels of one well-known pollutant, sulphur diox~id'e„ the death rate from dirty air remailned'the same,, suggesting that sulphur dioxide may, itself be harmr less. CONNECTICUT RESEARCHER,Kurt Oster told aisymposium that milk may indeed contribute to heart trouble--but not because of cholesterol or fatty acide, He presented evidence that an enzyme in cows' milk,may be the culprit.,' IN GRAZ, AUSTRIA,, law requires autopsy in every hospital death. Colorado researcher Broda Barnes comparedlautopsy records there in 1930, when TB death,s were high, with 1970, wheniheart deaths were high. He reporte&to the American, Geriatrics Society that frequency of:heart damage among TB patients suggests that modern,d'ay TB survivors are heart- attack prone. PJpNSM'OKER ISSUE CALIFORNIA state senate narrowly adopted a reso- lution which wouldireqaire establishment of no- smoking areas in all legislative hearings rooms in the state"s capitol. The resolution was sent to the state assembly for aivote. INILOS'A'NGELES', the city's Public Health, Welfare and En- vironment Cbmmittee recommended a watered-down versi~on of its original smoker segregation proposall (Newsletter 102) to the city council. If enacted, the: ordinance will requiree smoking areas to be designated at certain public facilitiie:s. The original version would aliso have covered restaurants and'sporting facilities:. The report noted that former Sur- geon General Steinfelid said "evidence is accumulating" to show that secondhand:tobacco smoke is hazardous to the non- smoker, adding that "There have been since that time, however, atudies and reports by various public health agencies which indicate that the smoke from other people"s cigarett'es may be unpleasant but t3ia t it is no t: harrrr fu l'. "

RACINE (Wisc.) alderman voted, 11-6, to throw, out a proposal to ban smoking in their council chambers.. SPOKANE (Wash.) Chronicle lashed out at the state's board of health because it:proposed a tough measure to prohibit smoking in public places,that would "confine pipe, cigar and cigarette smoking to the privacy of one's own home or the middle of' a wheat fielid., " It went on: "If' such a regu- Zati,en ever becomes a written rule, the next victims to such ruLee making may~ be whistZ:ers,, gum chewers, bone crackers, dandruff scratchers,, lint ptuckers and popcorn eaters." CONTROVERSY AROSE in Connecticut over interpretation of the new~l!aw which prohibits smoking at public governmental meetings if the person in charge has posted a no-smoking sign, and a new tobacco industry spokesman emerged: "Red" Springer, director of i'ndustry and!governmen- taI affairs for U.,S. Tobacco, told' a statewide tv news audience the law made sense in covering places with "cramped space or inadequate ventilia- tion," adding: "In our business we have to be araare of what science has learned on the subject, and:I can,assure you that research does not support any cLaim that the smoke in a normal public meeting room can hurt somebody,eZ'se's health." WS-IILE MAINTAINING that he's still aniantismoker, a Connecti- cut director of a local "SmokEnders"' quit smoking clinic, told the Bridgeport Telegram that the Conn. law is "harassing" and added that "scare tactics are not the answer either," making specific reference,to surgeons general reports tfiat say smoking is linked to cancer., HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS FOR THE RECORD: American Heart Assn. says inn its new annual report:! "We don't know whatt causes high blood pressure. Or atherosclerosis."'., ..(It also discloses assets of,nearly $90 million);. ..Journal of the American Medical Assn. says: "Tt is not yet known why more cases of malignant disease occur in some countries thaniin others." FOREIGN UK's Under Secretary of State told Parliament, regarding a voluntary ad code amongicigarette mfrs., "I am,.not satisfied that this voluntary agreement has been strict- ly appli~ed." He said the govt., i~s thinkingiabout &stiffer one. ..The Evening Standard reported that "leading doctors are now so worrtied:about a,buiLdL up of evidence Zz!nking~the smoking of cigars with lung cancer that they are to demand' a television advertising ban and other curbs on promotion from the Covernment:." POLAND HAS BANNED smoking in eating places, trains and li- braries, accord'i~ng to a wire service report. Polish news agency said it was Europe's first such law. A:PARIS PAPER REPORTED that the Greek govt. has prohibited smoking by auto drivers, and that a liaw has beeniproposed in,Italy to forbidismok- ing in enclosed pliaces., INV'STATION:, From Daviid T. Carr, b1i.D., chairman of the planning com- mittee for the,Third World Conference on Smoking & Health, (c/o~Ameri- can Cancer Society), to The Tobacco Institute,, to attend. TI accepted~. The event will,be next June 2-5, at the Waldorf., ###I