Tobacco Documents Online

;=:11EWS CALL EULLEMi "~ 8an Francisco, California ;- September 20, 1962 _ . . By aANtti >•;5„t°r:M'A y THE POLLUTANTS were ;i . .. COIwANT Identified, refinedl and ap- garct smoking may not plied to laboratory mice, in have such "ov-erwhelming,which cancer later de- importance"'in lung cancer veloped. - as has been suggested, ac- The - inveAi,~;atnrs then '..rnrding tn a top team of'Na- looked' askance at the al- tinnal! Cancer Institute in, most' - universally accepted vestigaun•s. belief that cigarets are the •' Thev by no means eaon- t.: eratr °` :-nnkinc, as a factor. gi:, ,,., i•, r.aire the furor over cigaretes has obscured the ;!'poasibly significant role ~ played, by still another cuC- ~Prit-smug: "it would be most unwise through an exaggerated i:empliasis placel on the sig- c;nificanre of cig;n•et smokin;, ' thr stWA•, of generel and lloc ai' ini u•y-rclated air. a~;pollutants woul,d be :m- ' paii•ed and neelectei.;" the. scientists declared. , , J r 'AND THEY reported they ^ l i:- found substances, capable of V I eausing cancer in mice;, in ~ I! the air above eight U. S. l' cities including San Ftan- ~ ~ efsco. { The report, publishedi in t . "Archives nCPathology:' waa by a team headed by Dr: W. C. Hueper: This Is the t%c, covern- meni s wo: 1 cancer research pt not more than, 20 feet eenter, nnt connected with the tobacco indwar' v: . The researchers enllcrted air samples in dmvntowrt and indttssrialized areas of San Francisco, New Orleans, Birmingham, Atlanta„Phifa- delphia, Detroit, trincinnati; and Los Angeles, at a height ( cc: street level. prime cause of lung cancer. L'laimc about the "prcdnmi- nant importance" of ciga- ret>;;,the;• saii1;,"are evident. Lv'prr+duct; of a rather selec- tive type of research and of spurious reasoning from, a limted and special' kind of ev,idence." •Non-tobaicco factnrs" have been given scant con- siderabion in lung cancer studies; they declared, add- ing: "\4hile it is quite likely that cigaret smol.ing, has playzd a direct or, it,direct role in this respect, it is, on the other handL not probabla that it way of, _uch oveF whelming importance as al- leged by many investigat- oral' LOS ANCELES =S Las Angeles, California . September 21, 1962' V" BY H"RY NELSON+ Times Medical Editor One of the naUon's toP This finding,in~itself has cancer investigators belleves little bearing, on ~ lung cancer that cigarette amoking, has In humans. The importgnt been overemphasized and air thing. the researcher aaid, pollhtion underemphasized is that evidence, indicated as an im otiant factor, in the ~at each city has a diff..~ 1 ent potential for causing rising incidence of' lung, cancer. cancer. . The variation depended "It would~ be, most un- not'only on which pollutants wise," said Dr. W. C. Heuper are in the, air but also on of the National, Caneer, In- climate, the amount of sun- attlute; "'if through an ex- shine and geologic coi aggerated emphasis placed tions: on the significance of ciga- "The present studies rep- rette smoking:the study of resent merely a ff;st and general and local~ industry- p3eliminar}, step in a, pro , related air pollutants,would ibnged and comprehensive be Impaired or neglected." pybgram dealing with rela- Dr. Heuper is chief of the yoshipa between air piol- environmentall cancer sec-;lutants anl heuith 'harards,' tion, of NCL He made his including cancere," Dr. Heu- comments In a technical per said. ournal of the A m e r i c a n= ~The a pailable evidence DrcHeuper made it clear? rather definitely aFsigns to he believes c[gen®tte, smok- (air pollutants) an important ing' is an 'important factor, role as human respiratory in causing the disease but c"'~mogens (cancer-causing he believes also that eve~ , _~bs+ances). The o b v i au ~s ~' and proven lung cancer hatr spmmuqity his itq own atr ards related to these agents mospheric , eapcer-c a u s f r, g deserve serious attention,es• potential. ~' pecialiy since they can bc. : The sclent.^t based t h i a controllc3 by p ~ o p e~r sani latter conviction on a study,;~r and technolo c meat of the effects on mice of pohttr s"' ~ lutanta obtained from the,at.e mosphere of eight Ameri= can cities: The cities were Atlanta, $irmingham,, Cm- cinnati, Detroit, Los Ange- Ies;,New Orleans, San Fran- cisco and Philadelphia:, Dr. Heuper andi his fh-e associates selected only fou!f of,the hundreds of poltutam.i which stem from auto ex- ]iausts and industrial plant*:: The pollutants were aroma- tic and aliphatic hydrocar- bons. Dissolved and injected' Into themice; they, invariab- lycaused cancers at the sites pf injection„ t s. Q; 6111i / ;;"'•;ft"