Tobacco Documents Online

• -` f'~itizens' Com~~ittee for the ConqCest of Cancer ~ ~ If 7159 South Franklin Way, Littleton, Colorado 80122 Co-Fou nder SIDNEY FARBER, M.D. (1903-1973). September 20, 1978 r Lorillard, Inc. 200 E. 42nd'Street New York, NY 10017 Curtis H. Judge, President cancer forces on the defensive so they would presumably be less able to criticize smoking, and to take the pressure off smoking by convincing the public that we are all surrounded by a sea of industrial carcinogens and that smoking is a minor factor. Co-Chairpersons EMERSON FOOTE SOLOMON GARB, M.D: KAY MANSOLILL I'm seeking your help in protecting the national cancer program. I am . the Director of a small non-profit cancer hospital and also serve as Co-chair- man of Citizens' Committee for the Conquest of Cancer, a voluntary group that wants faster progress in finding more effective, less toxic anticancer drugs. Over a year ago, two friends who know a great deal about the tobacco in- dustry warnea me of an ongoing plan by some PR representatives of the industry to attack the cancer program. According to my informants, the plan involved in- ducing free-lance reporters and others to attack the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and the entire concept of a national effort to fight cancer. These attacks would allege gross mismanagement and neglect of environmental carcinogens. The twin goals of this plan were to put the anti- Dear Mr. Judge, While having the greatest confidence in my friends' knowledge and astuteness, I originally found it hard to believe that anyone associated with the tobacco in- dustry would do anything like this. Aside from any moral and ethical issues, it seemed so counterproductive and so damaging to the long term commercial interests of the tobacco inddstry.for several reasons. 1. If the millions of Americans who have a deep emotional commitment to the conquest of cancer were thwarted in their desire to see new and better treatments developed, they would turn all their energies to the one issue about which they felt confident - smoking- and intensify their demands for its abolition. 2. The "sea of carcinogens" concept would boomerang, since there was already lots of scientific evidence that tobacco is a co-carcinogen and that smoking increases the risk of contracting cancer from other carcinogens. Asbestos i s the best exampl e, ~ 03'732552 3. Since tobacco companies are now diversified into other fields the al- leged plan would focus attention on other possible carcinogens, perhaps weaker ones, made by the same company. (If the above three events would save lives, I would support them, but I am sceptical.)

SPONSORING MEMBERS .e LW_ ABEL K.F. BASCOM, M.D. r MRS. BIRCH BAYH' - M ILFRID E. BELLEAU GERALD J. BERNATH; M.D. WILLIAM McC. BLAIR, JR. MRS. WILLIAM McC: BLAIR, JR. ELMER H_BOBST.... .. _ JOHN S. BOUSLOG, M.D. WILLIAM CAHAN, M.D. FRANK CARMODY JOHN MACK CARTER MARTIN CHERKASKY, M.D. R. LEE CLARK„ M.D. "-DONALD A. CLARKE,'PH.D. ' ^:STANLEY E. COHEN PAUL B. CORNELY, M.D. CLYDE CURRIE, PH.D. ALAN' DELYNN! ` ISAAC DJERASSI! M.D. JAMES F. DONOVAN, M.D. VIRGINIADOWNING, M.D. GREGORY S. DUBOFF, M.S.,,D.SC. ROBERT S DUNBAR CMIL FREI, III, M.D: SIDNEY FARBER; M.D. SAMUEL M. FISHER EMERSON FOOTE ~-MRS. AITCETORDYCE JAMES W. FORDYCE RICHARD A. GAMS, M.D. SOLOMON GARB,•M.D:• ^ LEONARD GOLDENSON MRS. PATRICIA GREEN , PAVID GREINER . DENMANIHAMMOND, M:D. JACK HAUSMAN '=-MRS. PAUL G. HOFFMAN `W~ _ ROBERT W. HOLLEY;,PH.D. REVEREND C. LEON HOPPER ARLINE HOWDON, C.T. ESTHER S. ISQUITHI ~ BARBARA B. JACOBS, PH.D. ALLEN JOHNSON; JR. FATHER TOM JONES ; ,;,,-•,_MRS. WALLACE K. JONES JANE JUSTICE, R.N. MRS. JOHN LOVE MRS. JOSEPH LEIBOW • MRS. MAMIE LANDER DR. HARRY B. LASKER NORMAN LEAR MRS. DANNY KAYE EDMUND KLEIN, M.D. JOHN A. KOHLER' MATHILDE KRIM, PH.D. LEONARD LYONS R.W. McBRIEN O.L. McLEAN EDWARD McSWEENEY ° " MRS. RALPH MANSOLILL :HENRY C. MARKOFSKI ROBERT K. MASSIE MRS. ROBERT K. MASSIE EMIL MAZEY H. HOUSTON MERRITT, M.D! HOWARD,M. METZENBAUM. MRS. JAMES F. MICKELSON KENNETH 8. OLSON, M.D.. MICHAEL J. O'NEILL. LEO PERLIS NAOMI DE SOLA POOL, M:D. +' JOHN RALSTON WILLIAM REGELSON, M,D. BERNARD J. REIS MRS. MILTON RISKIND RICHARD L. ROBINSON' RUFUS L.,ROBINSON, JR., D.D.S. - . .: ' i MRS. HELEN D. ROQUEMORE NATHANIEL ROSE MARK SCHRICKER RALPH'M, SCHWARTZ, M.D. THEODORE H. SILBERT - JOHN S: SPRATT, JR;, M.D. C.R. STARKS, D.O. . MRS: EUGENE F. STEINER, R:N. „ ROBERT F. SWEEK ALBERT SZENT-GYORGYI„ M.D., PH.D. MICHAEL F. TAMER MRS. BOBBY TINTEROW HARRIET VAN'HORNE HAROLD E. VOORHEES A.D. WHITTINGTON GEORGE B. WILLIAMS u ~ .

A 40 A 10 I . c page 2 C c. 4. Tobacco people are not immune to cancer. Twenty-five per cent of tobacco company presidents and officers will get cancer, as will 25% of their wives, sons, daughters, etc. remarkably short-sighted about the long-range effects. My friends were right. The charges about industrial carctnogens and America's cancer rate are false. Industrial carcinogens account for 1% to 5% of cancers. The U.S. is 22nd in the list of 44 nations analysed by the World Health Organizations in age-adjusted cancer death rate, behind three communist nations. .The first two articles have proven the point and I don't need the third. The PR people were certainly clever in the way they inserted those remarks, but tobacco industry, I would have to concede the correctness of my friends' warnings. For these reasons, I doubted the warnings. A few months ago, however, I received a similar warning from a third source and noted an ominous pattern to the attacks on the cancer program. Accordingly, I decided to•study carefully three articles written by free-lance reporters attacking the cancer program. If two out of three were hostile to the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer-Society and the National Cancer Program~but seemed sympathetic to the appropriations to NCI plus legislative statements that the increase should go toward developing better treatments. Finally, the Tobacco Research Institute should allocate substantial sums to findinqanticancer drugs in plants. I'm sure a way can be found. find a second generation of anticancer drugs - medicines that are more effective and less toxic than those currently available. This should include higher total not admit any of this. However, as a first step, you can stop the attacks on the cancer program and make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. Second, you can try to repair some of the damage. Quietly, you can ask those Congressmen and Senators with wh=you have influence to support the effort to Whats to be done? Realistically, I rea1ize that the tobacco industry can- I estimate that the actions of those who were representing the tobacco industry have cost the National Cancer Institute about $55 million per year. I hope you will wish to rectify this. If I can help in any way, I would be happy to do so. Yours truly, Solomon Garb, M.D. SG/gr

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