Tobacco Documents Online

SCMCE'NDWS LE7TEB Marah~ ]10, 1962 an,cer and thle Environment l Some answers to cancer causes lie in long-term experi- ments aimed of establishing scientifically the part environmentt plays, Faye Marley reports.. '> IS A' CITY' TRAFFIC POLICEMAN who breathes automobile exhaust fumes 211 day running a greater, risk of cancer than a fumer overexposed to the sun's rays in a Haans wheat ficld? Or does the, habimal' dgarette smoker run a greater risk of' malig, nant disease than the uranium mine worker? Experiments aimed at answering these and many other questions related to the sum of environmental causes of cancer and other, disnses are going on all over this eountry and in many parts of the world. Preliminary, studies of possible litng cancer in Philadelphia traffic policemen have shown that the polieemen~have the highest levels of lad' in blood and urine among city and suaurb'an dwellers and workers. For the iirst time experiments in Cali- fornia have shown that mice infected by influenza virus and then exposed to ozon- ' ized' gasoline fumes, by inhalation alone, developed'ancer similar to the human type twice as frequently, as those whicfi did i not' inhale the air poilutant: Dr. Paul Kodn of' the University of Southern California School of' Medicine, who reported this study with his caworkers, said the ozonized gasoline fumes were comparable to certain types of' polluted air. One of, the major research projects on air pollution is underway in Los Angeles, Burbank and,Azusa, Calif; and work in a fourth nearby location will start in ~the sum- mer of 1962 on the Hollywood Freeway. Effects Studied in Animals Dr. L. Otis Emik of the U.S. Public Health Service]ii air pollution division i told ShcxccSs:avrcE. thatt th'isand a similar large=saleanimal.study , in Detroit willigive scientists an opportuni tyto. observe in mice, . rats,,guinea pigs and rabbits the effects of' the samecontaminated air that people breathe. Additional studies will involve human subjects exposed to conditions simi- lar'to those for the,animals. Automatic electronic instruments are being used to measure condnuousay arbon monoxide, total hydrocarbons, oxides of' nitrogen, total oxidants (substances that se adily release oxygen)„sulfur dioxide andl inorganic . particles.. These.gases are.being,monitorede in eigh't. major cities in this country, including Los Angeles andl Detroit;, where a continuous program is sponsored by the Public Health Service. The other cities are Chicago, Cia dnnati, New Orleans, Philadelph'ia, San Francisco atud' Washington, D.C. More than 8,000 cases of oecupational', anter. have definitdy been, reported since cancer of the scrotum was associated with the soot of chimney sweeping in London in 1795 by Sir Percival , PotG As far back as 1879 occupational lung cancer was reported in uranium mines in Czechoslovakia. More than 50%a of all deaths in these mines were reported due to the presence of radioactive gas (radon daugh'ters) in the air inhaled by miners. Uraaium mining has grown with the impetus of gold rush days . in this . countryas profit-seeking amateurs with, Geiger counters have trekked west inithe past few years. They, like many profiuseekers, neg+ lected to take health into account. Last year the Public Health Service warned that lung ancer, heart discue, aC, oidents;and radiationi exposure were amongseriotu hazards in the nearly 1,000 under. ground uranium~~ miness in the western United States., As recently as 1959,,examinations of 1,802 samples of the mine atmosphere showed that more than 6K°/, of the samples had concentrations one to ten times gteater than the safe level. These smdies involved 371 '. underground mines with 3;619 miners. I1he Federal Government is powerless to STREET AIR-A ' duct siphorss samplea o/' air from a Detroit street to a laboratury in which about 2,500 animals are being, testtd' for the effects of filtered and impure air. control much of the occupational hazards, but states, cities and communities may obtain national help. The Californii State Department of', Health is now trying, to find out whether living in Los Angeles ~ andoth'u heavily polluted!cities carries a special risk of lung canoer. With aid from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of,Health and the,American Cancer Society, the health department obtained health histories from more than 10pJ000 persons several ynn ago. It will probably take another two years before final results are known. A project for studying the geographic distribution of cancer as related to environ, mentall factors in Washington County, Maryland, is now underway, Radioadivity Link, Studied Geologists, chemists, physicists and' soil scientists are pooling their talents with medical men to find out whether a dispro-e portionate number of' ancer fatalities in certain parts of the county is influencediby the radioactivity in thr rock or soil. The study is based on cancer death rees ords that,go as far back as 1898. In apreliminary..report, Pope.A. Lawrencee and Dr. William Y. Cben, working under the National I Cancer Institute, praised the work of Dt, Ross Cameron, Maryland deputy state health of5cer, and county health officer for Washington County, in starting the Environmental Cancer Field Research Project in Hagerstown,. Md. Based on Dr. Cameronld study of the can. cer death records, a unique field research laboratory has been staffed and, equipped by the National Cancer Institute. The Coffman Research Center was built by a local , phil.n thropist: Cigarette smoking as a ause, of' lung ancerr hasbeen.s implicatcd in r'search reported' under grants by the American Cancer. Sociery, and.d substantiated by the AmericanMedial, Association and others. However, scientists connected with the tobacco industrymainta.in that . insuf5cient research has been done to show ause and effect. Comparative studies in English cities where the burning of coal causes larger amounts of benzpyrene than occur in New Zealand and South Africa have indicated that the early exposure of males, especially to the benzpyrene, Sas contributed more than the smoking ofkigarettes to,lung cancer. Lung cancer has been shown to be greater in U.S. cities than in rural areas. Coal is burned in the United Sdates less frequently than,in the United Kingdom. The,culprit' may be auto exhaust, in which nine cancer causes have been found. Occupational skin cancer has come most often from exposure to hydrocarbon mate- rials from three mainsourcest eoal,products such as tars and distillates;,mineral oils and ( conti'nued)

(continuledifrom previous page). SCIENCE' NEWS LETrEFt' March 10, 1962 their products;, and the products of' incom- plete combustion of carbonaceous materials.. In all of these the cancer causers pre- sumably belong to the general family of l N'poly,nuclear hydrocarbons, of which the ~; prototype 3,4-benzpyrene was identified in ~ V coal, tar. .The ultraviolet light of the sun, has. ~ caused skin cancer in farmers In certain ~. geographical locations. X-raye in radiologists and arsenic in insecticide manufacture have ~' been responsible for oecupartional'skin can- cer. cer. ©steosarcoma is the dominant tumor found in radium, dial painters. ~ Dr. Norton Nelson of' the Institute of Q Industrial Medicine, New York Univasity, ~ Medical! Center, New York, says the asso- aation of lung cancer with chromium ~ chemical manufacture now is well estab- lished. Experimentally, bronchoRCnic lung cancer from inhaled chromium has been reported. Both the refining of nickell and the manufacture of isopropyl' alcohol have been linked' with increasedl incidence of cancer of the respiratory tract, especially, of the sinuses. . ~ More than 1,400 1bladder cancers of' occu- pational origin have been reported. Aniline was originally blamed and' bladder cancers were dubbedl aniline rpn+oer,, but a fairly narrow group of analogous compounds having similar properties to this poisonous liquid, used in making dyes, now appear to be the cause. Betanaphthylamine, benra- dine and 4aminodlphenyl have been' im- plicated. Control within Industry il making large strides, ranging from rigid protective meas- ures 'to abandoning, the manufacturing process. However, all hazards are not under control. Nuclear testing In the atmosphere and underground has addedla whole new group of environmental causes of'eancer for study. This man-made radiation, because of its special scope, has not been includedl in this discussion of the more eommon, environ- mental problems. MEDICAL,TRIBUNE March 1962 60,000 Cigarettee Called Safety'Thresh0ld' JVledicat' 7Mibune-World fi5dr Report Canadian Bureau ToROn+ro-Three thousand packs of'ciga- rettes represents the probable lifetime "threshold" for safety in smoking with, comparatively little risk pf contracting respiratory disease, a team of, public health investigators said here. Beyond that figure, the risk rises "si2ad ily and comparably in both sexes," " ac- cording, to Dr. Benjamin O. Ferris, of'the Harvard University Sthoolt of Public Health. He reported a 1951 survey in Berlin, Nl H., in which "inereasing, current and lifetime cigarette smoking exposure" was found associated' with "a constant and virtually regular increase" in all chronic respiratory disease. Similar correlations were found with chronic bronchitis and irreversible obstructive bronchoputmo-, narydisease. "In all cases,"'Dr. Ferris said, "the cigarette smoking variable was highly signiflcant even, after age standardization," He said the faetor, of age also had an important effect on the prevalence of all respiratory disease in, both sexes: He stressed the Importance of such tnforma- iion, in epidemlologic st+±dies of respira- tory disease. "For example," Dr. Ferris said, "it is~ felt that nonsmokers may be the mosr suitable subjects to observe In order to, study the pure effect of atmospheric pollu- tion or occupational exposure to dust or gases." Dr. Donald O. Anderson, of the Univer- sity ofi.Briti'sh Columbia, collaborated. THE NEW YORK TTMMS New York, New York Marcl;i 2Q, 1962 1S;RIOY K. N0Rh; LED A DRIVE QN SMOKING ' Isroy' M: Nnrr of 233 East 8txty-ninth 8treet, a. publlcibt •andi crusader against' smnking, died 8unda,v night in i~enox F$ill F3ospitiLl' after a'short it1L ness, He was 75 years old. • A former newsman, Mr. Norr 'worked ih the New York office of the Reuters news service during World War I. In recent years he devoted himself to pubiicizing.the relation between smoking and health. He wrote articles on the sub- Ject in several' publications and' contributed to a book titkd' "Smoking and Health" by Dr. Alton Ochsner. In 1954 he began circulktion, of his "Norr Newsletter About Smoking and FIea1t~1L" ~ • Mr. Norr, served earlter, as a public relations consultant to the soap industry and to the Radio Gorporation of America. He also was associated with the late Will Yday,s, who headed the office now known as the Motion Picturs Associatton of America. Survivors Include his widow, the former Rudy Crohn; a daughter; Mrs. Lorrie X Erd- man; two sisters„ Mrs. Jean, Johnson, and Mrs. Sarah Belll; a brother, Harris Norr, andifour grandchildren. W,Li:3 ;~~ : G22 R / 003'5-3 76Z2_ `~