Tobacco Documents Online

0 - By ARTHUR McCLUR:E The air that American city dwellers breathe teems ,,with caneer-producing agents, a study by the U. S. Public Service shows. But the results of the survey t ld reassurance for resi z"dents of the four communities in the ~;~N.. Y. ~ Metropolitan Area that'~ V-v served as guinea pigs in the `' n . •.: `v i Gty.,, tests. : .. These cities are Newark. Jer- , ~ -sey City. Bayonne andPater- All are heavily in- M , san. N. J.'g:7 "dustrialiaed. but they scored well below most of the other .. urbam centers whero: the at- S~ 'IDosphere was sampled. What the researchers sought were chemicals that havepro- .~ yy .~ ~dueed cancer in animals In tt Chiff th laboratoryess.eoese chemicals ta 4-3 benzyprine, which the PHS said is produced by tncomplete.combustion and ts found inaoto exhausts and - coal and oil smokes. Here is the number of micro-' (lrams.of benzyprine foundin 1,000 cublometers of air in the New Jerseycities:: . Newark .............. 4.5 Jersey City ......,.... 6 Bayonne ............. SS ~~ HIGHER LY ~. U. S.. CAPITAL ~ _ Washington, 1). C.,. which bas about the same population ass the: four New Jerseycom-lpii'n.r ofair, nor wasaay othet He said a non-smoker livlnc. In a large U. S. city is exposed to more of the chemical than ~ a person living in the country who smokes a pack a day. . i N. Y. NOT IN SURVEY I Dr. Sawicki also declared the differencA in the amount of cancer-producingchemicals.in the air cf'cities and non-urban areas corresponds to the pat- tern of lung cancer mortality rates.. He saidi these tables show a much higherlung can- cer death rate in cities. New York City was not in- cluded in the nationwidee sam- muaities and has no industry, measured' 9.3 micrograms. At the other cnd of the seaie wereAltoona, Pa., with 61 and Richmond,. Va., with 45. - Fog-ridden London scored s . - . high of 117. More surprisingly, 1Flilan. Italy. reeisteredY31! Dr. Eugene Sawicki. of the ~.tobertA. Taft SanitaryEngtn- bering Center at Cincinnati directed the.survey;. He said polluted air Lt a greater source of benzpyrene than cigarets, which also pro- duce the chemical. 3 4 3.~~ ; Ieommunlty In the state. There L no explanation of why New York State was excluded. Butt it was considered signiG- cant that the surveyincluded Nc+Jersey communities which ew. York officials havee said ontrlbute to air pollution here ecause of prevailing westerly winds. mAin~ Pac~: a Day in Suburbs Believed Safer Than Big-City Life A big-city non-smoker in-I A PACK•A-DaY smoker in•lcentrauons 100 timds greaier hales more of an airbornehalesapproximately60'micro-,than the average person. chemitai suspected'as a cause grams of benzpyrene a year,J MORE BENZPYRENE' is of lung cancer than a pack-a-Dr. Sawicki said. The average found in the atmosphere in day suburban smoker, a Cin-~on-smoker in Cincinnatt winter than in summer, cinnati scientist says. Ihwould inhale about the same,prabably because of large The chemical cr gas is mounr, he said. lamounts of fuels burned fon benzpyrene and the scientist, An average non.smoker Ceating. Concentrations also Is Dr. EtiYene Sawicki. Dt,would be a person who works i are heavier in the East and Sawicki' and other scientists in a city and lives in a suburb. ' Midwest than in the West. at the Robert'A. Taft Sanitary !1 person Vho lives and works I The number of microgram; Engineering Center recentlyin the downtown area would Qf behzpyrene recorded in a completed an 18•month pre-1nhale more, Dr. Sawicki said;•year at some sampling siter limina the rene co tent of the ai'rin 103 Others who live near cer•lin hiissouri' State Foresti 1C cities and 28 rural areas. it~n types of industrial plants Benzpyrene is believed' to or work at some jobs also Helena, ASont.,, .8; San- Flan. come from the incomplete would inhale much more of msco; 14; Los Angeles, 20; burning of fuels, waste ma, the chemical , New Orleans, 26: Atlanta, 44; terials and other combustitile Cincinnati, 79; Detroit. 110; , As an example, Dr. Sawickii Nashville, 1201 Birmingham, substances. It alsc is asso- said a man who works with1150; County Hall, London, ctated with tarry aubetances. ltar would be exposed to con-lEngland. 320. Science has strengthened' Its case.against air pollution in theinvestigatlCRft causes of lung cancer., The findings of Dn William C. Hueper of the National Cancer Institute in Cincinnati : thus minimized the effect of .; cigaret.smokinginllnking air , pottatton.to cancer In his re• ' search which co-ordinated sta- tisticai, chemical and labora• : tory data. "' Dr Hueper cited Birming• ham, Ala., as a prime exam, pleofthe dangers of contami, nated atmosphere. It has a lung-cancer rate three times as high as the national aver• age. He pointed out this is in direct proportion to t h e amount of benzpyrene in the air. Recently the Public Health Service reportedi benzpyrene was in~ all air samples taken from over 100 citie- Theevidrnre polntsto thee fact that Birmingham Is. in a situationsmilar to numerous industrial cities in Britain that also b'ut•n large quanti. ties of coal and have a simi• lar ratio of tienzpyrene and cases of lung cancer, • Dr. Hueper reported In his studythat all areas have ' au "atmospheric.carcinogenic spectrum" •vhich is affected' by the towns Industrial ac- tivity and the weather. The ! type of fuel burned in the town r:as listed as an im- portanr factor. ; Unlike the coali burning ' ciOes of Britain, U. S. towns I have factors affecting air - pollution, and It 13difficulG to - find a& wmmom denominator iit analyzing the problem. He urged industry to coo- operate tn launching studies-- of the cancer problem among Workers and raethoiLaqG tustr . ~ bating air ~ pt4ILtton ~ POST & TIbES STAR Cincinnati, Ohio May 9, 1960