Tobacco Documents Online

The New York Times carried letters from Senator Neuberger and~one of the authors oTte study she criticized. C I E`7C'S'Sbyyy p~o NE'1,YORK TIMES ~ New York, New York April 2, 1962 Lung Cancer and Ci~arettes 3enator Neuberger Says Tbbacco Industry Rejects Evidence Different View TosnsEorrosorTasNswYoexTruse:. . A, radically different picture of In The Times'Busihess and Fi,the relative health nftobarcn indus- hancial section for March 18there,try emp4oyes emergee.from th'e. So- appeared an analyeis.of the impact clety of Actuaries. The society,. of lung cancer research upotf thewhoae cold and.diEinterested anaiy- eigaretteand advertising fnduetriess sis ofetatistical data formss the ba- The article noted that despite the eisfor insurance rates, reports that proliferating evidence that ci pareU,s ~erateof'dlath and permanenCCdib- smokingcauses.lung eaneer,-fneto- abilityclaims for tobacco industry baecoindestry adheres to the posi- employes ie eignificantly higher tion that the causal connectionhasn than the rate for comparable em- not~ been proved,l ihdeed probably, ployes in other industries.does not exisL The writer cites a Dr. Michael B. Shimkin„ Associ-xcent report by the Ameriean~ To- ate Director, for Field Studiess of thexcco, Companythat' Itss employeslNationalCancerInsGitute, h'as.stat- uaoke twice as much, live longer, ed that the causaP relationship be- d'~.have fewer deaths.from cancer tween~w smoking aadcancer"is as heartdisease than the.general clearly demonstrated as anybiolog- oiic. Typically, the report con-~ ical associatioscan be,"Dr. Shim- cl6ded: . kin and others have.estimated.that'"These results aree in dlrect. oppo- 20,000 lung cancer deathss are caused sition to the hypothesis thatt cigar- by cigarette smoking annually; ette smoking per et causes higher The. Times' article, "Cigerette mortalityratesy generallyy and/or Men Eye New Threat," falrlycap-lung caneerand/or heart disease." turess the callous myopia of the Are they.7 The followingg pe.rti- nent discussion appeared: in the Journal of the National Cancer In- etitute on Oct. l5„1858: , . . It is well knownn that mor- taiitycomparisons cannot be drawn directly between employe group,s and the general population, aincee the death rates for manyy g:-omps.of, employed persons arelewer than death rates for the general popula-tlon withh age,, sex andracetakenInto consideratlon. This 11 truebe.cause there.is.a strong tendency to exclude from employment thoae per-sons who have acute or chronic dis-eases orr who are seriously disabled, from~anycause and those employes who develop permanent'disabilitiesfrom diseasee or otner cau+ess are usuallyy discharged. retired or dropped from the list of regular emp4oyes.. Reasons of, thiss nature undoubtedlyy account: for the deficit deatAs from alli causes notedIt groupof employes under conaid- stton." affected indhstriesin regarding the aesoc4atiow between emoking, and'lung cancer solely as a threate totheir commerciaG interests.. Lung cancerr doeapose.a threat to the cigarette Industry;; it alsn, threatens a substantial eegmentt of the advertising industry. It ies a grave.threat tonat:onal healtli... And It la3 a threat that'neither the dis- tortion ofecie.n.tific data nor the most inventive sdvertising campaign can abate. MA;,'Ri\P. B:. Nl:U'nR.Ri:ER, I United States SenatorfrnmOregcn; Wash'ington,, March 2^;, 1962 I. NEW YORK TIMES New York, New York April 9, 1962 Smoking andDeath Rateg Study's Co-author Defends Low Mortality Findinga in Industry Tores EorrosorTas Nsw.Yosx Tniss: In a letter published in The Times The researcn, to which Senator for April 2, Senator Maurine Neu- Neuberger refera was not Initiated berger comments on "HeavySmok- by the American Tobacco Company. ers With Low Mortality, a.14v~-Year The first mortality calculations were Test of the Cigarette Hypotheeis of madee byy two scientists of the Na- Lung Cancer Causation~" of which tionai Caneer Institute, United States Lam~co-author. This summarizes aPublib Health Service, att their re- series of.studies which indicate that. 9ueat„coveringtheperiod October,, approximately 11,000 employes of 1946, througli ~ 1952. The scientists,, the American Tobacco Company live. Dn- Harold F. Dorn and Willlant.S.longer and have fewer deaths from Baum, found that the employes' total ~. cancer,, lung cancer and heart dis- mortality rate was "definitely lower" ease thann the general public. Att thanaverage..n the same timeth'eir percentage of. Independent Study pack-a-day or heavier sm..okere Is more than double the U. S, average. An independent study of these employes' smoking habitss was thrn Her letter makes the point thatmadet by five scientivts from thee death rates for many employe groups University of North.Carolina. Their are;lower than.general population surveywas described.byDr..R.Hd rates. In our, report, published In gtgdon, Professorr of Pathology of, the-March issue.of Industriai Medi+ the University of Texas and an ex- cine and Surgery,, Dr. Jacob Coh`n perienced cancer researcher, as "the and I noted this same point. besti that~ has been published.The The- We athat the significance of techniques used to establish the our data did: not lie in that facL Rather,,it lieein the facts that (1) the employes'lower-than-average mortaiityexists concurrent with a pattern of dSSttnctly heavy emoking„ and (2)~respiratory.cancermortality la as much below avcragee in this heavy, smoking population as ia mortality from other or all cauees. amounG smoked emphasize the un- certainty of the data obtained byy others, even including myself:" Mortallty.rates from1953-56. puo- lished byHaag-Hanmer, confirmed the Dont-Bawn findings; theesten-sion, of mortality calculations to1957-60 byDr: Cohen~ and myself constitute fm•therverificatlon. Group's Turnover - We believe the findings of these All three mortalitystudies-Dorn- l3sunt; ilaag-4ianmer and Cohen-HeL.nann-ifidicate that emp3oyes on le.ve„those Wired fordisability and Lzo_ee rcttred ?orageare ir,c-_ded. in the mortalityy caiculations, and that turnover among the.whole em- ploye group etudied~ is negligible. Dorn-Baum stated that. "There is no evidence that the]ower mortality of the.workers in cigarette factories can be attributed'to rapid laborr turnover or to dropping.seriouslyitl employes from the payroll." Thus. Mrs:. Neuberger'ss assertion, "Rea- sons of lhls.nature undoubtediy.ac- count for the deficit ih.deaths fromallm cau.o4 noted' In the group ofemploycsf under consideration," is not valid. four, separate studies, obtaineid with- out recourse to sampling or esti?- mates, are contradictory to the tne- ory thst'cigarette amoP:ing perse "causes"' increased mortality from sP -tauses,. from respL^atory ^sacerr or, from~ heart disease. SenatorNeuberger's. letter meu-tions data fronu the SocletyofAotuaries. Since the data do not refeii to.smokinghab.its theyhave no di- 'rectt relevance to the widely publi- cized thcorywhich attemptslo link cigarette smoking,with lung cancer RosERr K. Her.iaNX, The Amcrican TobaccoCompany.. New York, April 3;,196:.