Tobacco Documents Online

Sor.1e examvles o' cc3i+nria1 coY-iment, C WINS3'ON-SAIIEM JOURNAL Winston-Salem, North Carolina May 27, 1962 A Proper Display of Caution WIiE.T President Kennedy was asked about the cigarette health scare at his Wednesday press conference, he made a point of avoiding a careless answer. The state of mind of millions of smokers, to say nothing of the cigarette industry it- self, would be in better shape if others whose words are considered authorita- tive had shown similar caution. The exchange at the press conference was as follows: QUESTION: "Do you and your health advisers agree or disagree with these findings (indicating a casual link between smoking and lung cancer) and secondly, what if anything should or can the feder- al government do in the circumstances7"' ANSWER: "That matter is sensitive enough and the stock market is in suffi- cient difficulty to prevent my giving you an answer which is not based on complete information, which I don't have and, therefore, perhaps I would be glad to re- spond to that question in more detail next week." The recent statements and actions of the British government'~ has, of course, led to pressure on the Kennedy Administra- tion to say-and perhaps do - something about smoking's effects on health. Gov- ernment s t u d i e s are reportedly under way. Until those are ccmpleted, the Pres- 1u2nt will not be in a position to say much more than that he is awaiting reponrs of the studies. Chances are, if the quest'ion comes up at his next meeting with the press, that'is about what he wiSli say. The research on which the health scare Is base& has left a number of important holes in the case for a causal connection between smoking and lung cancer. More- over, some other research has produced results that wouid tend to disprove any connection. An unemotional summary of all the evidence accumulated to date might be stated this way: Cigarettes are subject to suspicion as being involved in the causat'ion of some cases of lung cancer, but have not been proven guilty: And the field of possible culprits is by no means limit'ed to tobacco smoke. Medical science simply does not have sufficiently complete information on which to form a firm judgment. In view of this, the President's reference to his own lack of "complete information" could mean that he is not,willing to make a strong statement on the basis of what is now known to science, or that he is not personally well-informed on what is pres- ently known, and that he wants to get all available facts together before he says anything. But the important message in his an-.' swer is the awareness he displayed of the damage a person in his position could do by going off half-cocked on a matter of concern to a major segment of the U.S. economy - the tobacco industry. The President cannot be expected to "cover up" for the tobacco industry if definite evidence of a smoking-cancer link Is found. And in view of Mr. Kennedy's con- cern for the physical fitness of the U.S. population, a statement from him on smoking is to be expected sooner or lat- er. Fortunately, he has given the public reason to believe his statement, when it comes, will be a balanced one. C