Tobacco Documents Online

CHICAGO DAILY NI:.WS Chicago, Illirsois. March 6, 1962Z l.iuJ53. S94 What's This? Smoking 'a Boon? SOML MONTHS ago we were speeulat« ing, on the extent of the moral element in efforts to link cigaret smoking to lung can, cer. We recalled that Grandfather dubbed cigarett "coffin nails" long before he had any mediwl evidenee to support him; largeiy, on the strengthof his personal prr j iudices. The researchers who found, a, higher than average incidence of lune cancer among cigaret smokers undoubtedly pleased many p:ople who believed, more or less that there was something inherently devilishl aboutt cigarets. Remember that it was only in, the I y3'0s that any manufacturer dared to sug- gest publicly, that nice women might .enjoy -sa: swell uf' tobaccu -smokz. NEJW' YORK WQFtLD-Z'EIEGRAM AND SUN New York, New York March 5.0 1962 Lung Can~cer Scarce ' - In Tobacco Reid The American Tobaeco, Co' of the expeetancy, respiratory today reported a 14-year sur- cancer deaths 71' percent, car- vey showed' that 11,000 em. diovascular deaths 75 percent, . ployees in its cigaret factories and coronary deaths 79 per- smoke more than the general cent. I public, but live longer andl No Deaths in S' Years. have had frwer deaths from cancer or hvart disease. A separate classification of' deaths due to rimar 11Jn , p y g These employees have a ci~, made for the last aret smoking rate tWice that cancer was of the United States averaee, eight years of, the test periocL the survey found, but showeri 1933-60: It showed only fottr only 71 percent of'the average deaths from this cause, against deathi rate and 71 percent of an expectancy of 11. In the the average respiratory cancer last three years, there were rate over a 14-year period' no, deaths from primary lung This group did not, show a cancer. single death due to primary The authors concluded, aftes' lung cancer during the last reviewing the results of their three years of' the period, study: These results are In 19',57-60. direct' opposition to the hy- A'rticie Published. pothesis that cigaret smoking The findings were made pub- per se causes higher mortality lic todAy in an article by cates generally and for lung, Jacob Cohen, Ph.D., and Rob- `ancer and/or heart disease:.' ert K. Heimann, Ph.D., pub- lished in the March, 1962, is- sue of' Industrial Medicine and' Surgery. The article reports that the percentage of pack-a-day or hravier smokers amnng the workers tested is mmre than dbu6le the United States aver- agr. Their observed deaths over the test period were only 71 percent of' the expectancy. Cancer 'deaths were 70 percent Y.;~~53': 594q However that may be, a team of'medicali researchers has now come forward with . some evidence to start the pot of controversy to boilimg again. They found' that, heavy smokers seem not onlV to live longer but to have less than the avera e incidence of "- g lung cancer. The study was made, over 14~i years, of' 11,000 employes of ' a tobacco company. The subjects inciuded' more than twice the proportion of' persons who smoke upwards of 20 cigarets a day than the average in the population. This heavy smoking, according to the re- • searchers; was "because of a vocationai' in- terest and' the provision of a free pack of cigarets a day." The mortality rate of the p group was nearly 30, per cent below that , which the standard table would call for. . We don't believe that either the medical profession or the public is going to accept this latest finding as conciusive until far more proof is available. Meanwhile, it may serve to quiet the misgivings of'many smok- ers who are putting off till next week theirr determination to quit forever, again. We suppose the manufacturers are pleased by this outcome, but this, too, coulde be mis- takeni If cigarets ever become a road to health they, could~ encounter more resistance than they had as; a risky fling. Who can't : resist the spinach habit:'' ^.