Tobacco Documents Online

ulprit: Air Pollution ZHE THREE-DAY meeting, end- of sanitary engineering fngg Friday , apecialists in the American Society of .-: Civil Engineers has given Cincin- natiians some new insights into our nat'ional problems of land, water and `air pollution. The main theme of the meeting was summed up in the topic of a talk by Assistant U~ S. Surgeon General Mark D. Hollis, "Environ- ment And Health-New Challenges." One of the challenges is the gray- black daytime metropolitan atmos- phere, which Los Angeles presents at tta worst. And the problem is not only aesthetic. Evidence is accumu- lating that our city, smogs, heavily laden with motor exhaust fumes, are related to the alarming increase In lung cancer deaths. The American public may be too much preoccupied with the problem oF cigarette smoking an d lung cancer. Much interesting evidence of the role ot air pollution is coming to light. The other day Dr. Clarence Cook Little, the noted cancer researcher and acientific director of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, called attention to a fascinating study in . the Union of South Africa. This study, carried out by South Africa's Dr. Geoffrey Dean and pub- lisherl in the British Medical Journal, was based on male lung cancer deaths South Africa have long been the heaviest cigarette smokers In the world, yet they have a relatively low cancer mortality rate-a fact that calls for some explaining. But re- 'ceatly there has been a rapidly grow- •ing cancer mortality in the cities of South Africa. The study disclosed that British- frnmigrants, especially from large in that country from 1947 to 1956. It points out that white males in British cities, were pushing up the death rate from lung cancer. The Iacidence among this group was found to be much zreater .than among white native-borii men or male immi- gran:ts from other countries. * - * * DR. DEAN stronoly su.~,pccts that• the basic cause of the ha,her death rate among the Br_tish newcomers lay In their environr.:er,t back in the British cities fro-r: w!iich they came-. fn the smoke, smog and traffic fumes of modern living. And this is by no means the only research study point- ing to atmospheric pollution as the major cause of lung cancer. . We have made much progress in cleaning up our land. We're working hard, at least in the Ohio Valley, to clean up our rivers.' But we have only made traceries in the air over the problem of atmospheric pollution. IIJ9J IRER-NL+'WS Battle Creek, Michigan JanuarY 3, 1960 _ South Africa Study Blames Dirty Air for Lung Cancer ;: NEW YORK - fUPD - A re- search organizatiom supported by the tobacco industry said Saturday a recent study in the Union of South Africa suggests that air pollution may be to blame for the reported increase in lung cancer throughout the world. The Tobacco Institute, in its publication "Tobicco and Health," said the South African study was conducted by Dr. Geoffrey Dean of Port Eliza- beth, South Africa. It was based on male lung cancer deaths in that country from 1947 to 1956, it said. Dean found that white males In South Africa have been the heaviest cigarette smokers in the world for many years and yet relatively few of them have died of lung cancer. His report, originally pub- lished in the British Medical Journal, said that British men who moved to South Africa and died between the ages of 45 and 64 had a much higher lung cancer rate than either white men~ born in South Africa or male immigrants from other countries. "The relatively low incidence of lung cancer generally among' the heavy-smoking South Afri- can men, the higher and rapidly increasing incidence in the growing cities, and the high in- cidence in the younger agee group of immigrants from Brit- ain found in the present study, suggest that the air pollution.. which occurs in modern indus- trial life-smoke, smog, traffic fumes, etcy may be a major factor responsible for the alarm- ing increase of lung cancer In South Africa and Britain, and presumably elsewhere." Llk ; l :i