Tobacco Documents Online

By ARTHUR JOHNSEY Herald Staff Wribr The conflict of expert med'- cal testimony over causes of lung cancer began Tuesday in Miami federal • court:as. -t-h e .:,r. American - Tobacco Company; defendant In a damage suit, offered its first witnesses. w~':'.A University of Florida phar- macologist, Dr. Thomas Marenj told the jury that retention of arsenic in the body, when in- troduced in the blood stream =;ln far larger doses than comes "in through the smoke-stream of a cigarets is "trivial " And a practicing Miami phy- sician took the stand to af- 8rm that nobody knows the causes of cancer. ,.. a As. witnesses called by the defendant tobacco company, their testimony tended to con- tradict a aeries -of witnesses ffd b thttf th oereye esae oe '; late Edwin M. Green, Coconut !.Grove swimming pool contrac- tor. {r? , Careen's estate is attempting .:to prove heavy smoking of cig- ,.arets over more than 25 years caused his lung cancer. ~-°Before' ftitnpleting its case Monday, the plaintiff had of- fered medical testimony that even the minute traces of ar- senic found In the smoke= `. atream could accumulate In a `' period of 30 years or more to affect the lungs. 'The plaintiff contended ar- senic could be a factor, acting with other substances in ciga- ret tars, to cause cancer. ' Dr. Maren.said, however, that k x v.'.±k }~ n arsenic accumulates over the of origin of the cancer that years in the body in very small caused Edwin Green's death, places and In very small testifyingat withouf an au ..- amouqts so that its effect is negligible. ,; topsy it was not possible to de• y , . , a ,ti~ ~ ~ ~'; termine whether a growth in "Virtuafly all arsenic is ex- the apex of his IPft lung I creted by the kidneys a n d spread to the right side of the there Is little or no evidence neck as hart been indicated in of cumulation," he said. 4 earlier testimony. Dr. Flipse There was "not the slightest testified it ~+as "extremely un. evidence," he added, that Green usual" it the cancer spread as described. had arsenic poisoning before his Defense testimony was ex- death. pected to continue through The Green's attorney pro- Thursday. tested the witness' answer, pointing out that there was no contention that poisoning from arsenic had occurred. Asked on crcss-examination whether arsenic hasn't been "in- criminated" as a factor in icausing cancer, Dr. Maren re- ,torte¢: "It's been implied - chief- ly by one man who had no proof." Dr. Jay Flipse, a practicing Miami physir.ian, told the jury causes of Iung cancer aren't known by any one. He cast doubt on the place wr' :.Fl:. eories By ARTHUR JOH\ 5EY Herald Staff WrBtr, : A federal court jury heard -further m e d i c a 1 testimony Wednesday casting doubt on theories that heavy cigaret smoking is a cause of lung can cer. . ITf/ A Texas scientist testified he and his associates have tried for several years to produce cancer by use of tobacco tars In the lung of a duck but no cancer has been produced. ~~- Dr. R. H. Rigdon, staff inern- ber of the University of Texas M1, at Galveston, took the stand as a witness for the American Tobacco Co. , ~ , .. The company is defending it- self in a damage suit based on claims thatlung cancer caused by heavy smoking of Lucky Strike cigarets brought on the death of Edwiir M..Green. On cross-examination Dr. Rigdon said his research in part had been financed by funds made available to the Univer- sity of Texas by the American Tobacco Institute . Another witness cast doubt on the statements of witnesses for the Edwin M. Green estate, plaintiffs in the damage suit, that the •cancer that caused his death originated in the lung. Dr. Duane Carr, of the Uni- versity of Tennessee Medical School, Memphis, said he'd never seen a cancer in the left upper lobR spread to the spot on the right side, below the neck, where Green's fatal, can- cerlodged.