Tobacco Documents Online

.-- -6 12 s~ Institute Newsletter PREPAREO iFOR IYOUR INFORMATION 19Y THE INSTITUTE STAFF 1T7t K STREET, N.W.; WAS'HINGTON, O.C. 200061 •299dp4 Number 941 March 18, 11974'. BURCH, the'British medii~cal physicist who's been pepperinglmedical journals for two years with, letters questioning the "conventional wisdom" on smoking-health, di~s- cLosed in a New Scientist article'that he once beliieved smoking dbes cause lung cancer. Doll, author of so many of the statistics reliediupon by tobacco adversaries, was enoughalarmed at the Burch dis- section of the "evidence" that he contributed a rebuttal article., Whereupon, a week later, Burchiwas back with a, rebuttal to that. New Scientist, a majjor and distinguished weekliy, saidi iln an editorial that "th~ght course'surelg is to expose theissue to wider profes- sional and public discussion." And it railsedla question about "the degree to which persuasive but not conclusive data shouldibe usedias ammunition in health education activities." IDlYLLA,S NEWS' editorial staff writer William Murchison adtnitted in a column tobeing aismok'er--perhaps seven ci- garettessince ---1960. And he said "the medi~cal argument is~. ..far from, resolved'."' He concluded: In trying tb'sheZter us from every physical contingency, goverrnnent goes too far. Life and health are important priorities. So; too,, is liberty. STARE, the Harvard nutritionist, advises in Nation's Business that . stopping smoking can help~avoid heart trouble, but adds, there to my knowledge, no evidence that it ((smoking)) is a cause of coronary disease." LAFAYETTE (IND.), JOURNAL& COURIERcommented'on the sal , sugar and tobacco industries~Let's face it, these' is I

r -2- vestedli~nterests can kill far more Americans than Jesse James ever did." CBS-TV's "6!q',Minutes"' show (Mike Wallace) featured,Philip Morris V.P.. Bowling, ling, Clearinghouse Director Horn:and anti-smoking researcher Wynder in an update on the cigarette controversy. Askedlabout the industry's reacti~ons to anti-smoki~ngireports„ Bowling said, "We think the real call is to put the money into research to find out. ..whether or not the charges against cigarettes~are true."' DR. ALBERT'SABIN, developer of the oral polio vaccine, told UPI that 85 to 90% of'cancers might be prevented by making "environmental changes,." SaidiSabin:, If'we cut out cigarette smoking we couZd cut lung cancer dreunaticaZZy. &noking definitely causes cancer. NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE had' a 13-column article on "'addiction," of smokers. Tryingito define it, author MarthaiLear''s conclusion is that "it is a semantic,disaster area." NONSMOKER ISSUE, I MINNESOTA LEGISLATURE failed to act on smoking segregation bill whilch, means thatt the bill has been killiedifor the current session., Local observers expect reintroduction next year. The ARIZONA Senate approved and the House is considering an additionito its current anti-smoking law that would banismokingiin even more public pIaces~. In SACRAMENTO, a highly contested anti-smoking ordinance (Newsletter 41): narrowly passed. Mayor Richard Marriott had urged its disapproval when he said:. The ordinance is bad enough; the real evil is what it says between the lines and that is:, We are smarter than you are, We are cZeaner than you are. We are fit to judge your personaZ' habits. We know what' is good for you., IN SAN DIEGO, the City Council sent a proposed anti-smoking ordinance back to the city attorney's office for "clarifi~cation."' Consideration of a bill to reqµire operators of restaurants, bars and other public places to provide "'nonsmoking areas"'in SAN ANSELMO, Calif., was postponed to an indefinite date. RALEIGH TIMES came out for a state law banning smoking impublic places. WASHINGTON CAB COMPANIES say they expect more no-smokingi signs in D.C. cabs in the wake of' a local! Superior Court decision that freedla taxi driver who'd beeniarrested for postingian unauthorized'sign. HERE'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT, according to Arthur F. Bentley, political science and public and environmental affairs professor at Indiana Univ.,,

- 3'- quoted in the Terre Haute Tribune-Star: The i'ndications point' toward the treatinent of cigarette smoking as a taxable private uice„ tolera~ed cUmong consenting adults but pro- hibited from infliction upon the nonsmoking public, Under such circumstances the glamor of'the cigarette could sink t'o the level of snuff., FED UP: A lady wrc'ce the NewOrleans Times-Picayune, raised hell about the local "Nonsmoke s' Rights Council„'' soggested segregating people who have colds. A NONSMOKI~NG United States Weather Service employee filed -suit in a Federal District Court in Austin, Texas, to make: the Commerce Dept. enforce a rule he said protects,the rights of nonsmokers., I and !JA'SHINGTOH to expand the 20% BUS OPERATORS urged ICC to stay the: March 22 effective date to segregate nonsmokers rear seats available to smokers. CLEARINGHOUSE has a new leaflet mainly for youngsters. Partt of the copy:: In just 3 seconds, a cigarette makes your heart beat faster, shoots ypur blood pressure up, replaces oxygen in~your blood'withh carbon-monoxide, and leaves cancer-causing, chemicals to spread t'hrough,your body., RESEARCH UPDATEe: New York Times look,ed'in on Auerbach, reported that he and Hammond "raere: 'comp e new and'stignificant studies' on the relationship of s;nong to hardening of the arteries;, emphysema„ the degree of lung cancer prevalent among smokers of fil'tered' cigarettes, and the relationships between smoking and heart disease." WALL STREET JOURNAL picked up a report in New England' Journa~ f-Medicine from Siegelaub and Seltoer that their review of 36,000~Kaiser-Permanente health~care enrollees "confirmed the relation of cigarette smoking to a history of peptic ulcer"'independent of alcohol and coffee, "con- sistent with, although not proof of, a causal relation." WSJi said the stud{y was partly supported by Councili for Tobacco Research., EVERYONE KNOWS that as the custom of cigarette smoking spread since World War I d'ays~, there are more people thaniever around with~longer histories of cigarette smoking. And overall death rates from heart disease in the U.S. are rising. But JAMA,turned up some dataiwhich would not seem to fit a smoking-heart disease causal hypothesis. The journal discovered that the coronary mortality rate has been falling since 1963 for every- one over 35, except for persons 85'and up. AT&T'S!MEDICAL RESEARCH DIRECTOR, Richard Stone, discovered seven times more lung cancer, three times more G.,I., cancer and nine times more breast cancer among the 10:0,0001employees of

-4!- Pacific Telephone Co. He wants to know why., FOREIGIN' AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT reportedly extendedd its anti-smoking campaign with $150,,000(U.S.)~ in print advertising. SPILLOVER: AP deci~ded--on ground's,of taste--not to give U.S. newspaper clients a wirephoto of the British Health~Education Councili's poster of a naked woman smoking (Newsletter 92). TAXES' CIGARETTE TAX'increase billls are pending in, nine states. One state, Arizona, enacted a tax, increase from 10 to 13~ per pack,, effective July 1. Tax increase bilTls have been defeated in six, states this year and cigarette tax re- duction bills are pending in seven states including the,proposali in, New York, to eliminate the N.Y.C. "tar"-nicotine tax. C PEOPLE I A SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOL TEACHER wrote The Institute after reading about the avail- ability of TI''s film, "Smoking and'Health: The Need to Know":. I knma that the opponents of'smoking quote the 'blackened lung' as evidence of a danger; and I knowlas well many who have li'ved long lives and:died of quite different causes. So I welcome your state- ment' that we rvill have 'candid vietas." And:I prefer controversial discussion to arbitrary rul'ings. SOVIET'EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON'announced that Medzh,id,Agayev, an Azerbaijan shepherd, has retired. He's also a tobacco grower. He has 151 descendants. He's been smoking 100 years. ###