Tobacco Documents Online

FOR: Members, Tobacco Institute and TIRC TOBACCO NEWS SUMMARY Nos. 19-20 , 11, 1960 Condensed from Public Sources March by Hill and Knowlton, Inc. NEWSPAPERS Who do not smoke cigarettes. :.. , . . ., 9. "Insurance Break for Non-Smokers?" NEW YORK HERALD TtIBUNE. March 11, 191 Donald I.Rogers, Business and Financial Editor, saysin his column that ,,::leading life insurance companies are considering lower rates for persons ~ According to Rogers' the move is predicated upon the development by the drug industry of a foolproof test that will show whether or not the policyholder is a smoker. . -. ~. . . , "It was learned yesterday that such a test may not be far off," Rogers said. Further quotes from his column: ----- "This is the first acknowledgment by the insurance industry -- whichy after all, holds most of the actual money in the disputatious betting in the controversy of cigarettes versus lung cancer -- that the figures compiled by the anti-cigarette.clinicians have been taken seriously." incidence of death by lung cancer causes grave concern among the life in the opinion of most experts, inconclusive. Still, the rising ----- "Those figures which tie lung cancer to cigarette smoking are, unaerwr: pollution, diet, viruses and radiation." ---- "Under investigation besides cigarettes are such things as air Leading scientific teams and private studies have indicated a relation- ----- "By far the biggest culprit, at this date, is cigarette smoking. consider a special and a favorable premium rate for the non-smoker." ----- "If the manufacturing drug industry can produce a simple test such as a saliva test, wh_ich will definitely prove the smoking habits of a policy applicant, leading insurance companies are prepared to ship between the incidence of lung cancer and cigarette smoking." 20. "Heavy Smoking No Cause of Cancer, Doctor Claims." PITBSBURGH POST- GAZETIE. March 10, 1960 This two-col,umn story by staff writer Albert Bloom quotes Dr. Paul Kotiny University of Southern California pathologist, as saying that smoking two-and-a-half packs of cigarettes daily won"t "cause" lung cancer. "Cigarettes are not a source" of the cause of cancer; rather they are a source of smoke "irritants," Dr. Kotin told a University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health seminar. Cigarette smoking may help open the The story then went on to describe Dr. Kotin's research on air pollution. lung cell doors to cancer, he conjectured.