Tobacco Documents Online

i1l6RRAW SUN EVENING NE4:3' HEGISI'ER Durham, North Carolina Newark, New Jersey NeW Haven,, Conn. March 9„ 1962 "` March 9,, 1962 March 9, 1962' . 'CigarettesAgain The cigarette industry;,primarily, perhaps the British ;arette industry;,seeondarilythe American cigarette in- ustry, is bowing,its neck against' another eritdcal'storm •A,nine-mamcommittee of the Royal College of Physicians, no less; has called upon the British government to "throw, massive ffinancial' and moral' support" behind a drive to aurb cigarette smoking. The blow strikes the British industry primarily be- Swcariuuti Off Smokiogl And Yon6 R EOPENING an old debate, i:ii- War on smoking, with cigarettes ain's Royal College of Pli~•: i- 1te principal foe;, has been declared' cians demands a government rau:.- by Great Britain's 444-year old Royal paign against cigarette smokitu;. College of Physicians. The venerable Affirming charges: long famil:•.ir organization, caIliag' on the govern- on this side ofPthe water„tite Bnitish~ ment to act, is demanding that pre- pnysicians - f m pnystcians Diame cigareu.es noruuiy .eUuye sLeps oe prompuiy, taren. f It ll e wt a wsll fall dtrectly an the, Bmtrsh tndustry, the American industry only as the Royal College argu- for, lung cancer but for bronchiti:e. On this side of the water, the To-o- menes impress American,smokersm coronary heart' disease and tubcr- bacco Institute of American tobaceo 'I"o some Americans the British, report' may seem to cu)osis. Cigarettes aLko retard the manufacturers says "the report from projectfinding; rather far. The report declares that the healing,of ulcers, they add. England is admittedly a review of old parallel between alcoholism and cigarette "addiction" is The, report' has produced a , Pre dAta without' any' new research ffnda close. Physicians are men of stature, and ar2 respected dictable reaction from the tr'ta _~ga-~~ While in London, the British but there are a great many who will not accept cigarette , Tobacco Manufaeturers Standing "addiction" They willibe skeptical, too, very likely, about industry on both, sides of the :,;;= the British assumption implied in the statement that, "It tic. Again, the validity of't. e>tt '- aommittee, pointing out its oo-oper- appears that smoking is much more habit' forming than porting data is challenged and s1»::- auoswithmedical and scientific auth- drink;ng" ers are reminded that scientists aru orities in health and smoking studies, There may be truth in that,conclusion, but,such ciga- divided. takes ezeeptiow to~ the omission of' rette addiction and its effects;,if there are substantial ef- The inditstry, needh't get .'o questions of' air pollution in the ooh fects, are not'as apparentaa:alcohol addiction and many w;orked' up. It has something going lege's report. The two should be people, oigarette smokers and others,, are not going to accept it for it that is better than a monopoly studied together in the manufactur In another aspect; the report+ as have so many reports --captive customers. After eaclt era' view. before, seems too sweeping in its generalizations; as for scare there seem to be more: cigar- New fuel, at any rate, has been instance when it declares that "smoking is linkedi with, ette smokers than before. added,to the;smoldering deb>'e• IHere killer diseases such as cancer and bronchitis" and when This one, will! doubtless induce' at home the evidence of cigarette -ft-sTatei'that°d'iseases associated with smoking now cause soune stNeardng-off whicha, on the sales'and consumption indicates argu- w many, deaths that they present one of the most ehal- basit of ask erformance will last rrnging opportunities, for preventive medicine today,» P P ments pro and ooan are, makang' little American smokers, of course, have not seen or read unttl I he s'•t earer off' tires of smok- inroad into the habits of confirmed Cane 71D-page report, nor are they apt to read it; but most ing his fliicndr eigIIrette5 and de- smokers. ' m probably will be doubtful thaUthe British committee has .ctdes abaln 1p buy hiq ussn really proved its declarations and probably will reduce what the physicians present as findings to "sp,etvlations,"' They know so many smokers who, live to be very old people and they are aware too~that there,are so many other factors in modern living which may be producing the very manifestations and conditions which are being .-blamed by some on cigarettes. The smoker: in the overwhelming majority of'casea fn the United States, perhaps in Britain and elsewhere, probably will gp on smoking: T4tere may be danger in smoking but, as in vitamin deficiency, he cannot feel l it As in the case of fluoride in his drinking water„he can't taste iti Moreover, th'ere: are so many adverse possibilities in the areas of insecticide s ra usedion the foods he eats and additives to the foo s heeats, Fa man (and!woman) of today has adoptedi a fatalistic attitude, which, where what he wants to do is,eoncerned, makes him impervious to a large degree to all but the most obvious of theories.EI/ENIIVG UMT_ON T3JLI:E'17N Walla Walla, Washington March o, 1962 ~ Where 1here's Fite While a verbal battle rages on the ably has contributed to what' is said subjeu of cigarette smoking and its ef. to be 81 gain in per capita use of cig- fects an health, the Amerioan,public is arettes.,They were up 5.1 per cent, the buying cigarettes at an acceleratedi king-size non-filters were up 6.9 per cent rate. During 1961 consumption gainedl and mentholated brandb up 13.4 per at the rate of 4:2'pes, cent and!the com- cent. mon stocks of the companies producing! Hfeanwhile reports pro andi con on, t5emfor the U:S., trade made an ad- ..theeffects of'f cigarette.e smoking cnn•e vanee of'nearly 60 per cent, against an tiaue pouring out for public enligh[cn• average of 23 per cent for all common ment.. Despite all the "fire" that is stbckr traded. represented' in the argument,, t'ie The popularity of Cilters unquestion- smoke is more in evidence: 1603537&14C4 The matter is, howevery one of aerious concern for young and old ah7ce. About the same time the Royal: College of Phy$icians spoke out, aL news story closer to home taid; of r smoking survey ini two Long Island high schools. Thirty-six per cent, ol boys intervSewedl were smokers, 24 per cent among;the girla. A disttubing; statistic was that 59 per eent of the tecn-age smokers polledl began smok- ing before they were 1'S years,old. There seems to be a good argu- ment here for the researchers to di- -rect a concentrated education effort on the relations oL health and' smok- •ing toward this very vulnerable age group: If there is to be an emphasis on physical fithess for young Ameri- cans it might start right here - as well as on the playing fields of Eton. Such an approach need not wait on elders resolving,the debate over the health smoking issue. Y.~~::~~3 :'G 14,$