Tobacco Documents Online

` Faced with a rise in~ deaths from lung cancer, among men of 2200 per cent in 30 years, the Danish National Society for the Combating of Cancer has recommended that smoking be severely curbed. It would forbid smoking in public places for persons under 16, prohibit;smoking,in public transportation facilities, schools and libraries, penalize smoking cigarettes by taxation favoring pipe and cigar smoking, and restrict' or abolish ad- vertising of'tobace% , and especially of cigarettes. ACtie ame time, the British gov~ ernment is under pressure to dis- .courage smoking by imposing,higher EAGIS ifi<chita, Kansas March 10, 1962 Mew Rep+ort' on To bacco Britain's Royal College of Phy- sie' ns reports, without equivocation, t' igarette smoking is a cause of lu cancer. The:College's study also produces the findings that causes bronchitis and contribuo coronary heart disease. The phy- sicians recommend'that their findings Le publicized widely and that ceri.ain restrictions and taxing handicaps be placed on the tobacco industry. When the lung cancer scarc:arose N a few years ago, it was quieted by ,tobacco industry action: The filter, ~tip cigarette, was heavily promoted to allay smokers' fears about their \114'.itealthk Tobacco consumption contin- ued ued to rise. Acutely sensitive on the health imue, the industry undoubtedly will defend, itRelf against the British ~ charge on several fronts:, attacking the College's findings, presenting ' J medical counter=argpments,, stepping N3 , up advertising and changing em- ';N phasis. Perhaps nesv gimmicks wiff ti be produced to reassure the cancer- phobic hhobic smoker. The medical profession will again choose up sides and go over the en- ire argument again. he Collega's report' gave three is why the public refused to accit "the facts" about smoking: people dislike accepting unpleasant facts; big,fiinancia4 interests,are in- volved volved in tobacco; and, most import- ant, people who smoke want to keep on smoking. And that, undoubtedly, is what they will do., taxes on cigarettes, folbwing the re- port of the Royal College . of Physi- cians declaring, cigarette smoking is a probable cause of the increase in Iung,cancer and,other diseases. In Washington, Sen. Maurine B.. Neuberger, Oregow Democrat, an- nounced she is preparing legislation "to: deall with this tragic problem." -The mounting evidence is becom- ing persuasive, but we 1 e a r n e d through the prohibition amendment the fallacy of' trying to restrict per- sonal habits by law: We must find a way to convince people to help them- selves, not to stubbornly resist doing what is good for them. TfII,-CI2Y HERALD Paaco, Washington March 13, 1962 THE Nzr'1N YCIERK TI]'E5 New York, Ifew York April 5, 1962 Cigarettes and' Pinblic Health While the controversy about the relationship between cigarette smoking, and lung cancer is still far from settled, the problem is entering, a new phase. In Britain, the Government has opened a cam- paign to educate thrpublie, and especially school children, to thc risks of' cigarette smoking. A campaigp,by civic committees is under way in London, Bristol and Manchester to ban smoking, in theatres and motiow picture houses. In Den- mark; the Danish National Society for the Com- bating of Cancer issued a report affirming a linkk between smoking and lung cancer and urgingthe, Government to restrict or abolish all cigarette, advertising, andi to prohibit all petaons under 16'years o.f'ago from smoking inipublic:. In this country, Senator Jfaurine,B. Neuberger of Oregon is an advocate ofllegislation aimed at, resttieting, the sale of' cigarettes. She has tn4dd the Senate tihat"the Federal GovernmenYcan no more permit the continued unchecked i poisoning of our population than it could, permit the unrestricted sale of narcotics." As against all these, we have the 1961 report oflClarence Cook Little, scientific director of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, emphar aising that "even if a statistical association is 'assumed'to be completely valid, it does not and cannot demonstrate that smoking is actually a factor"'in causing cancer. But'if the health, well, being, and life span of the vast majority of ourr population are involved, it'ahould not be,neces. sary to wait for 100 per cent proof. Many leading medical and public health su- thorities agree that the: statistics demonstratee beyond a reasonable doubt that smoking of ciga-s rettes has an injurious effect,of'some kind on those wh'o indulge in the habit beyond modera- tionThis should be enough for public health agencies to discourage the habit by means short of proh'ibition.. 'IWlost Likely' Cause Ci arette smoking, says the Brit- Ish oya ]lege of Surgeons, is the. "most likely"' cause of, lung cancer in humans. Its indictment of cigarettes re- sulted from a two-year study, which c o v e r e d thousands of case histor- ies and more than 200 other medical' inquiries into smoking." The surgeons also, said cigarette s m o k i n g probably contributes to deaths from heart disease, tuberculo- sis among elderly men and the de- velopment of, chronic bronchitis, can- cer of'the mouth„ esophagus, larynx and bladder,. The: B'r i t'i s h Tobacco IJtan:dat•- turers', ' Standing Committee, in rc• plying to charges by the Rioyal,Sur- geons, suggested air pollution rather than cigarette smoking is the, cause of lung cancer. "There is much, evidence,"' it, said, "to suggest that the striking dif- ference in the incidence of lung can- cer and' bronchitis het!ween urban and rural areas„ and betiween one country and another,, reflect in varying de- grees the effects of air pollution." Pollution could be a factor, of edurse;, which would seem to c a,s t doubt, on reliability of the surgeons' study and conclusions;, which is pre- cisely the reason the tobacco industry has puintcd the finger at the air. 1:'s the s a m e tactic schoolboys use "L+ok what he's doin_-!" t h e y say, hoping to divert, attentiom from thrir ownconduct. Certainly you can't blame the to- bacco industry. It has billions of do1- lars at'stakc. Biut' cigarette smokers have even more to lose.