Tobacco Documents Online

-- -- ~~z~-~ The Tobacco Institic :, 1776 K St. „ N. V., Wast igton, D. C. 20006 d?`~ Contact: William Kloepfer, Jr.. Office 202'/296-8434 Home 301/229-0414 FOR RELEASE, A.M.'S', FRIDAY',, JANUARY 11, 1974 Ten years ago'today, after months of secret work, ten scientists appointed by the U. S. Surgeon General dramatically releasedia severe indictment of one of the world's most popular -sociaT customs--cigarette smoking. The charge that the custom was responsible in some ' degree for some of mankind's most prevalent ailments was But last year the famous 1964 "SurgeomGeneral's Report,,"' .~ viewed iniperspective„ was noted in aiHarvard Law Review articlee on got n.,cnt agc...._..c".:pu''.~licity praet4., aa a "deliberate attempt to oversell a narrow product"'which resulted in "mis- leadingimedia coverage." Still another view was expressed today by Horace R. Kornegay, president of The Tobacco Institute, the cigarette industry's Washington-based trade association'. To many, at the time it was issued, it did. "That report," he said, "was'intended to answer ques- tions raised about tobacco ever since the discovery of America. "Now, ten years later, judging from the enormous scientific inquiry of the past decade, it appears it_raised even more questions while settling few, if any." ~ (more) ~~

-2- Kornegay noted that the 1964 report contained 387 pages.. "Under law the Surgeons General have had to report periodically to Congress oninew smoking-heallth research developments since then,"' he said. "The six additional reports issued so far have rizn to more than 1,3001 additional pages. " He said the newer reports~have cited more than 550' re- search studies on!lung cancer alone!. "'Yet ten years ago, the then SurgeonlGeneral felt he had a closed case on this subject and made it his most categorical indictment," he added. Kornegay quoted from an editorial in Nature, a British: scientific journal, of last October: °'It is the mark of the successful scientist that he has rich enough an imagination to look for ...alternative hypotheses, particularly when the conventional one is popular." "P,s a layman, "' Kornegay said, "'I1 must pay tribute to those who have turned'.from proving the 'prove ' in the past te years into pathways of research which clearly show us now that the Surgeon General's report was muchimore a, beginning than an ~ W end in the!smoking-health controversy., ~ C~a . «~ "Inithe foreword to the 1964 report, Surgeon General ~ ~. Luther Terry wrote that the smoking-health subject 'd'oes not lend itself to easy anscaers.' But he said "it has become increasingly apparent that answers must be found.' (',more.)'

-3- "No doubt to the disappointment of many, it is evident now that the answers indeed were not 'found" in:the Surgeon General"s report," Kornegay declared. "As we look now at rnore recent findings with respect to such influences on healthias environment and pollution, sex and race differences, geography and genetics, it becomes obvious that the research which lies ahead will be much more significant than what has already been done. " "'Take genetics alone, "' Kornegay continued'. "'A recent studyof 18,000 twins showed"that among, identical twins, there was no difference in mortality even when one twin~smoked and the other did!not, while there were higher mortality rates among the smokers in general. "'In other words, when genetic traits are virtually the same, the 'association" between smoking and mortality disappears." He noted that other researchers reportedilaist year on AHH, an enzyme whose activity they found to be:highly associated with lung cancer. "Could it be," Kornegay asked~, "'that a high AHH level„ rather tha cigarettes, is in:fact responsible--thus explaining why the vast majority of smokers do not develop lung cancer?" O ~ ~ ~ ~ (more )' T

C -4- Kornegay said that similar work has been reported', since the Surgeon General's 1964 pronouncements,, with respect to another enzyme, AAZ', in the absence of which there is an apparent tendency for emphysema to develop. " "Perhaps this is why, despite so-much of the popular propaganda we have heard, the U. S. Public Health Service weighs all of our knowl!edge of emphysema andisays currently that 'the cause or causes of emphysema are not known,"" he said. "Another confounding factor has arisen from the reports that women smokers tend'to have slightly lower weight babies. A study of more than 13,000 women showed that those who began smoking after bearing children had'.had lower weight babies before they began to smoke! "Clearly, smoking could!not have been alfactor in, these cases--perhaps genetics was, in some way," Kornegay observed. He pointed out that the Surgeon General"s report wa~s basedilargely on statistical studies. But he said that in ensuingi years more refinedistudies have been published, showing substantial differences between blacks aind,whites with respect to cancer, heart ailments and respiratory diseases--even where smoking patterns were similar. (more)'

C -5- "'What, other than smoking, might be responsible?'° he asked. "'We know now, "' he declaredl, "'that there are unexplainedd sex differences in lung cancer rates. Fbr example, the man-womain ratio in the U. S'. is about five to one.. In the. RTetherlands, it is about 13.5 to one--and~ in Nigeria, lung cancer occurs more frequently in women than rnen,! "Ten~ years ago,, the Surgeon Genera]! "s report brushed aside air pollution as a significant factor,"' Kornegay recalled. "'Last year a massive report from the National Academy of Sciences left no question about the fact that air pollution is implicated-- the question was only to how great anlextent. "What other expl'anation could there be for reports that lung cancer rates are twi:ce!as high in cities compared with rural areas, even when allowance is made for different smoking,rates?"' Kornegay said tha.t 'tar' and nicotine are areas in whiich, in spite of publ'ished suggestions of their possible harm- fu1: effects, "we seem.to have seen the least progress in research since 1964. We aire still right at the point:where the Surgeon General's report said we were then: (more!)

C -6- ""Tobacco tars have been found to be carcinogenic forr experimental animals. ..carcinogenicity of tobacco tars has not been demonstrated in man. . . " And, "There is no acceptable evid'ence that prolonged exposure to:nicotine creates eitherr dangerous functional change of an objective nature or degenera- tive d'isease. ' "InIfact," he said, "'it remains true that there is no agent a~s found in cigarette smoke that can be specifically pointed to as a cause of disease in humans. "So much for hind'sight, " said Kornegay. "Clear]!y, cigarettes have become the world"s most researched consumer product. "'Answers to the questions raised about them have been, agonizingly slow in coming,. What does this suggiest for the future ?' "For one thing," Kornegay said, "'"scare' stories and propaganda clearly will not resolve this controversy. The adversaries of tobacco have drilled us in slogans and statistics until they have ceased to have any meaning. "Similarl'y, we have learned that scientists cannot,. and likely will not, produce simple answers overnight to the very c4' ~ profound questions which confront them. ~' ~ ( more ) 1'A

. 9 -7- "'The current and future obligation of the tobacco industry, health organizationa, governments and the public itself,"' he concluded, "is to provide even greater support to~ those scientists with 'rich enough an imagination" to continue~ seeking real, objective knowled'ge of'the eountless factors,, beginning before birth, which may affect our health~regardless c3-u- of the single effect of our use -a~ nonuse of tobacco.'"' ~'

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