Tobacco Documents Online

. SUBJECT: American Association for the Advancement of Science _Hous:ton, J!an• 3-8',_ 1979' . .There were thousands oft"scientists, several hundred news- every h~our~ on the hour. Numerous~ top~iic~s~ from~ the phys~iical~, biio~:- - paper people, scores of symposia, and press conferences almost or outstandingly different. The journalists were often hard- of material presented, there seemed to, be little that was new -med'ical and social sciences were covered' but, despite the mass pressed to, find worthwhile story material. 1. "'Behavioral medicine: a new challenge for behavioral . He has received NIH 'u, d's for an anti-smoking program, aimed at school children and is believed responsible for most,, if not all, the material dealing with adolescent smoking in the re- Ndtional Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Social Psychology in Preventing, Cardiovascular Disease Research Training Progxami. sity of Houston and also self-described as Di:rector.of the scientists" -- Richard L. Evans, a psychologist at the Univer- cent report of the Surgeon General. Prevention of' disease involves some form of lifestyle in- flrom engaging in such habits or,, once starting themi, fromm ing,,, drug use,, andd eating improperly rarely prevents people short timie. Being made aware of the dangers of smoking, drink- tervention, Evanis stressed. Fear arousal works only for a~ stoppling. c ime Evans showed a,film he'd made in which children who did not smoke portrayed how they refused an offer of a cigarette from their peers. This form of approach may prove to be val- 0, iaable in helping,kids not to take up smoking, he said. Smoking W has dropped by half in the Houston school district in which he'' ' d I C03 s doin his work h l ceptance of its long-term dangers„ Evans said. many of'themibegin smoking. Peer pressure, the example set by smoking parent and "'seductive advertising" seemito contribute to the fact that kids take up smoking,in spite of their ac- His research has shown that most children are fully aware of' the dangers of smoking by the timie they reach age 12. Yet G~a~"C! ,, ~;~ PUBU a~IA4 'ssaia C RELATION9ICOUN6EL te4lnr- (P. 0. BOX 223) T3'LINCOLN ROAD • GREAT NECK, N.YI. 11021 •(R12) 895-7445

A segment of the film showed measurements of'carbon mon- oxide from an auto exhaust pipe and from one cigarette. In both cases the needle ran off the dial. Evans commented that. inhaling a large amo u. t of the gas inia short time can cause death. ~ -At a press conference Evans noted!that HEW Secretary Cali- fano was in the forefront of the disease preventiorr movement. If smoking,is e]liminated, he said, the cost of'medical care will g,o down considlerably- He also said NHLBI recently askedihim to.look at the type. A personality factor in heart disease. Do.we really know that stress causes heart disease,, he asked?' Is the type A person- ality involved?' If we assume it is,,. can we change the indiividual?'. Evans,, now in the third (and presumably final) year of his school project, said there is some evidence that really addic- tive smoking begins about the 10th grade. 2. "The links between the environment and health'"- Marvin A. Schneidermani, B'ethesda„ Mdi. In a wide-ranging,, general pre- sentation, Schneiderman noted that health improvements through prevention result from things the community (government) does for us, things we do only a few times during our lives (e-g.,, vaccinatioms)' and things we do for ourselves every day (not smoke,, wear seat belts, etc. )„ He reviewed'changes in mortality from 190'0i-7'6„ noting that only cancer generally has continued "'inexorably's' upward (about 0. 7% yearly). « Recent analysis by him of r"possibly'''' industriall related!cancer makes him think the upward trend will continue,, perhaps more rapidly than before- There have been decreases inn cancer of the stomach, uterine cervix,-rectum, and liver. In, total, the digestive system cancers have been declining Forms of the disease that have increased are lung cancer, 'r'mostly due to cigarette smoking, but not all of' it,,'n' cancer of the bladder in men, pancreas cancer,, lymphomas,, melanomas,, prostate cancer~~,, breast canc~er,~ andi c~ance~r of' thie~ body of~ th~e~ uterus. The environment, as measured by health status,, has been improving steadily since 1900, Schneiderman said. We now' face a new environment because of'the new chemicals that have been introdo:cedi. Public health measures have been the most effec- tive disease prevention. However„ individuals can help them- selves by not smoking, lowering caloric intake, drinking in mod'eration„ wearing seat belts, etc. 3.."Scientific criteria for low level radiation

/ Alice Stewart, Birmingham, England. This paper, presented in part by her and inpart by George Kneale, also of' Birmingham (Thomas lwlancuso.,; P'ittsburgb,,..listedias co-author), was in ef- .fect a continuation of the controversy that arose at the 1978' AAAS' meeting,. At that time, -Stewart reported an increase in certain cancers (leukemia, lung and'pancreas)' among workerss at the Hanford (Wash. ) Nuclear Facility. This was disputed by an epidemiologist from the Facility. be 10 times more likely to get cancer than those not reg- . This year, Stewart and Kneale reported that the Hanford workers and persons who undergo freq..uent diagnostic x-rays may ularly exposed to such radiation. ., and statistically inadequate. ,,. . . ~ , , . This statement was challenged by several other speakers at the session and people in the auidience as being far too strong individuals between 18 and 40 years of age are more resistant to the effects of radiation and that the cancer effect of low level radiation exposure seems toible greater in women than in men. .. Stewart and Kneale also said'their analysis showed that . 4. "Long-term cardiovascular effects of' ionizing radiata:ons in relation to life-span't -- S. Phyllis Stearner, Argonne,, Ill. Exposure of mice for 24 months to two types of-radiation neutrons and gamma rays -- produced considerable damage in the heart and blood vessels of the animals,, she reported. The heart muscle and its smallest blood vessels showedithe great-.. est degeneration in one to three months after irradiation. The large coronary blood vessels, however, showed increased damage at later times, and blood flow through the capillaries decreased markedly in nine to 18 months. , After 12-18 months„ the coronary arteries showed micro- scopic changes characteristic of arteriosclerosis, Stearner said!. Plaques sometimes found in the vessel walls resembled lesions associatediwith human vascular disease. She said that when the x-ray or gamma ray dose was dieliv- ered over many weeks or months, the mice livedilonger and had less injury than when the dose was given in a single exposure. Whenithe total neuron dose was similarly given, cardiovascular injury was more serious than that caused by a single exposure. The damage included some cancers and injury to the immune and blood-forming systems as well as to the coronary arteries. 5. At a session on the effects of'prenatal exposure to alcohol, several speakers described human and animal studies

linking drinking by pregnant women to physical and mental ab- noramlities in their offspring. Sharon Landesman-Dwyer of Seattle (Univer'siity of Washington), who arranged the session and also gave a paper, commented at one point that smoking - by pregnant women was related to the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)'. However, Ann P. S-tressguth of the same institution said studies in which~smoking,was taken into account showedlit was not related. _ Ernest P. Noble of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration noted that there are 48 million women of child- bearing, age: in the U.S. and "'tnost of them drink."' Last year they gave birth to13-million babies. Noble repeated a statement onimaternal drinking he made .in 1977,whenhewas,head of the National Institute.of'Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. While emphasizing alcohol intake, it said,, inipart: "In human studies, alcohol is anunequivocal factor when the full pattern of the fetal alcohol syridromie is present. In cases where all the characteristics are not pre- sent,, the correlation between alcohol and the adverse ef- f'ects is comp]:icated by such factors as nutrition, smoking, caffei-ne!andr o,thear drug , consumption." -G'.E. Chernoff of'San Diego, reporting,on studies of mice that replicate the human FAS, said that.the reason the syn- drome appears in some children of alcoholic women and not in others is related to the varying blood alcoiiol levels of the mothers, rather:than to the amount of alcohol consumed dur- ing,pregnancy. 6. Speaking on a CTR pro ject, the Swedish TtviniStudy, Ltune Cederlof of Stockholm presented no new findings. He covered previously published data while gaiving a review of the study popul.ation, methodology, etc. There are, he said, distinct differences between smokers and.nonsmokers in regard to a number of "confounding"'factors. Cederlof later told me that he and his associates are now analyzing genetic data from the stud'y and will report them at the 1980 International Congress oniTwin Studies. In- dications are that genetic factorsareresponsible!forr'phar-maco]logic"' and' "'nonpharmaicolog*cl" types of smokers,, he said. 7. At a session on "'Genetics in Epidemiiology, "' Arno G. Motulsky of Seattle noted that 'rwhil:e we read in the newspapers that smoking,causes lung cancer,,'n only a few people get the disease. He made somewhat similar statements in connection with druwgs, alcohol, tuberculosis, etc., to stress the point that the explanation of these and other phenomena is related .to genetic variatiions. A person''s genetic background deterL mines his or her susceptibility to disease,, he s id.

8. Gilbert S. Omenn, assistant director in the Presidential Office of Science and Technology, gave a paper on public pol- icy aspects of genetics and epidemiology. Later,, in an inter- view with a writer fromithe "Houston Post,, " he was qgoted as saying most Americans are being, "'over-scared"' about the dangers of smoking, drinking and other healthihabits. . "I think a mo,rere~asomred, inte7Lligenta:pproachiaimied at promotion of good health and prevention of' disease is certainly in ord!er -insofar as the government is concerned, "' he was quoted. "And I don't think it appropriate for me or any.of the Presi- dent''s other advisers to suggest legislation that.would or could alter people's lifestyles." Omenn, on leave from the Uhii:versity of'Washington in Seattle, re~comm~ended newer,and/'or,b~~ett~er~ ways~ to~~ ed'ucate~ pe~~ople~ a~b~~out~t driving, gumis„ smoking,, and drinking be formulated by govern- ment and private groups. ""When we talk about promotion olf health and human rights,, then we have to start by reducing the slaughter on our nation's highways...and focus on decreasing,homicides,,'suicides and hunting accidents.through guns." Omenn said he is ""totally opposed"' to the federal govern- ment .,rplaying, big brother"' about prohibiting smoking or drink- ing,even though the medical facts are cl:ear on the disease re- sults fromithese two habits. 9. Barry Commoner of'St. Louis, at a session on environ- mental health, accusedl the chemical industry of trying to fool the public about the hazards of many chemicals. He said industry is seeking to gain public support for the view that environmental controls are too costly and that all ]life is a, risk. Industry is : complaining about 'nchemophoblia,'''' he. said,, "but as far as I am concerned, chemophobia seems to be'an ap- propriate response to1what has been happening." 1a;. "~Lung, cancer deaths rates of residents of an area con- taminated with p:lutonium'"' -- Carl J. Johnson,, Denver. In a poster presentation„ Johnson reported on lung cancer death rates: in 1975-76 in residents of an area with known plutonium contam- ination near a plutonium processing plant in Jefferson County, Colo. The rate was significantly higher in the contaminated are~a~ than in a~ control : area; the,raite was~ 7'8/1EI0!,-000!for~ th~e! 4'5~-64 ~ a~ge~ group a~scompared w~ith,3,3/~10'~0~, 0010~ for~ th~e~ control area. Johnson now is conductinig, a long-term study >of' death rates and cancer incidence in the affected area.

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