Tobacco Documents Online

The New York Times carried letters from Senator Neuberger and one of the authors'of-We study she,criticized.. . M ' YORK TTMES'. New York, New York April 2',196_2 Lung Cancer and Cigarettes. Sea.tor Neuberger Says Tbbacco Iadustry Rejects Evidence ~lbansEbrroawTasNswYoszTrusa: _A radically different picture~ of. In Tlie. Times' Business and Fi- therelatlve health of toiisrcn indus-W nandal section for March 18 there+try.employes~.emerges ferm.the..So- 'appeaeed an analysis of the. Impact • ciety of Actuaries.. The society, of'lungcancer research upo><~ the~wbose cold.and disinterested analy- eigatette.and advertlsingindustries ste oflstatiltical data forms the ba- . Tbe article noted I that despite thee els for inaurance nates, reports that pro1iferatingevidencethat ci reW~ therateof, deathandpermanent.dli- onokingcauses lung~.caneez:3ie.to<abilityedaims fortobaceo industry baceom industry adheres ~~ to the posi+ empioyes iss significantly higher tton that the causal connection has than the rate for comparable em- nott been proved, indeedd probabiyy pyoyes.ia other fndustrdes. ooes not, euisL. The writer cites aDr- MichaelB. Shimkin. Aaaool-!seent reporU byy the Amerdcan.lb- ate Dtreetorfor FiNd Studies.of.the. . aaceo Company that . its . employesl National .. CancerInstitute, has stat- ®ake . twice as much, live longer: ed t,hat~ the causal relationship be+C ',have fewer deaths from cancer tween, smoking and cancer "la as beart~ disease than thee generat ciearlyy demonstrated as.anyblolog-iic. Typ(cally,, the repoeteon-ieat associationcan,be."' Dr. Shint•. Ctuded: . . kin and~ others havee estimated that; "17tese.resuita aee in direct oppo- 20,000 lung cancer deaths are caused aftion ~ to the hypothesis . that cigar- by cigsrette: smoking annually.. etto smoking per se eauses higher 'rhe Ttines'artiele,. "Cigarette. mortality rates generally and/or Men Eye. New ThnesL" fairly cap-lung canrer andi!or heart disease." _ turea thee callouss myopia of the. AretAey?'Dhe following perti- affected lndustrdes in regprding~ the nent, discussion appearedd in the asaociatlonn between smoking and Journal of.theNational Cancnr In- lungg cancer solelyy as.a.threat.to atltute:on OoL 15,.1958:, ' theireommercialinterests: " .. It . is. -eld known ~. that , mor- Lung , cancer does posee aa threat , taiity comparlaons.cannotbe:drawn too the cigarette induatry;it. alsodlrectly between employee grougs threatens ~. a aubstential segment of' and~ the; general populstion., sincs the: advertising industry. Itt fss aa thee death rates for many groups of grave threat to nationalhealth:.l innd ~ employed persons. arelowerthan It ie athreatthat,neitherthe:.dia.a death.ntesfor the general popula- tortlon oC setentiflcc data, northetion with.h age, sex and race taken most inventive advertising campaign Into consideration. This. Is true :be- can abate:. cause thereIs.a strong,tendency to. MAt'xtNE B. NrntBetoru,. ~ exclude from employmentthoae per+ United States Senator from Oneg ' Ip ll sons who have acute or chronic dss, Washington. March 27„ 1962. eases . or who . are seriously disabled: ' ' from any cause and those employes whoo develop: permanent disabilitie.ss from diseaaeor other causes aree usually discharged, retired or, dropped from thee l'utt off regular: . employes:, Reasons, of . thia nature undoubtedly account for the deficit deatha from all . causes noted .. it . ~group . of employea underr consid- n." NEW YORK TIMES New York, New York April 9, 1962 7 Smoking , and heath Rates Studyls Co-aathor Defends Low 76ortality Findings In Industry 1brss Rcuroa orTasNsw Youc 7R><sa: .. InaletterpublishedinThe.Times. The reaearcn to.which.~3enator for April,2,.. Senator.. Maurine Neui Neuberger: refers waas notinit(atedt berger eommen ts . on .. "Heavy. Stnok- by the American . Tobacco. Company... ers WitttLowMortality; a 11y.-Year.. The fil+t,mortality calculations'.were. Test, ofthe: CigaretteHypo.thesis ~ of made: by two sctentists of the-: Na. Lung, Cancer. Causation,"" of:whichtlonalCancerInstitute,.United:States. I; am . co-author. This summarizes aI'ublte Health Service, at their re. series.of'.studies whichindlcate.t,hat 9umt..coveringth'e period t>otober, approximately 11,000: employese of 1946, through, 1952. The scientists, the American Tobaceo COmpany live. Drs. Harold IF~ Dom and William S. longer and , have fewer deaths from Baum, found that the employes' total cancer,.lung cancer and, heart dia- mortallty.ratewas"deftnitelyQower" esse than the general public. ARt than avemge.the same time their percentage of . Independent Study pack;a,dayor heavier smokers Is . Mindependent study of these . more than double . the U. S' average:.' employe.s' smok(ngg habits . was then Her letter makes ~ the point . that' made . by five scientists from ~ thee death rates formanyemployegroups.. University of',Nortli, Carolina. Their.. are; lower than . general population survey was described by Dr. R. H. rates. In our report, published in_Rtgdon, Pfofessor of Pathology ot th&March,lasue of Industrial Medt-the Universityof'Texas and an e=- oine. and Surgery,. Dr-, Jacob, Coh`n perienced cancerr research'er, as "the and I noted this same poinL beat: tltiathas been published. The We added that the signiflcance of uchnlques used to estaDlishtheourh data did notliet in that.t facL amount' smoked.d emphasize the un-. Rather,' it lies in the;faets that (1): certainty of thedata, obtaihed byy the entployes': . lower,than-averageothers,..evewincluding myselC."mortafity exists's concurrent wtthaMortalityh rates from,1953-56, pub- pattem of distinctly heavy smoking, tlshed by Haag-Hanmer, eon irmed and (2) respiratory.caneer'mortalltythe.Dorn-Baum findings; theesten- Iaas much below averagee in this sion of'f mortality, calculations to heavyy smoking , population ass is i 1957-60 by Dr. Cohen and myself mortality from other orallcauses.constitutefurtherveoification.. ' Group'sTurnover We believe the.findings off these. All.three mortality.studies-DOm, four'separate studies, obtainediwith- Baum,. Haag-Hanmer, and Cohen- out recoursee to. sampling or esti-.Helmann-lndicate that employes on "mtea'' are contradictory to the the- leave, those retired fordisabilityand o"ry~t cigarettee amoking.g per se'e those retired' forr age are tncluded -causee " mcreased mortality from ~ In the mortality calculations; and all causes, from respiratory cancer that turnover amongthe.whole em- Or from heart disease, ploye.group.studledilsnegligible. Senator Neuberger's lettermeu-tions data from the Society of Ao-Dom-Baum~.stated that'"ThereIs-tuaries. Since the data,do,not:refei, no evidencee that the lower mortality to smoking habits they have no d6 of the workers In cigarette factories •rect relevancee toi the widelyy publi- cani be attributed torapid, labor'cizedtheorywhich:attempts to4ink turnover ortodropp6ngserious4y ill cigarette.smokiicg with lung.cancer employes from thepayroll:" Thus, ROBrmrK. Htv.NtHHN, Mrs. Neuberger's assertion,. "Rea-TheAmeriean Tobaccu Company: sons of thiss natureundoubtedlyac+. ac+New YoApril 3; 1962. eount.forthe,deficit in,deaths froniall.m oausri notedl in thegroupe off employcs under consideration," is . not valid.