Tobacco Documents Online

Tifi Enters Its Sixth Research Year In '60 NEW YORK. Jan. 9 - In 1960 the Tobacco Industry Research Committee will enter its seventh year o~!!fl1'IEing substantial sup• port - without any strings - to independent scientists seeking to learn more about human ailments, especially those with which tobacco use has been linked by some organizations and individuals. As before, the Tobacco Industry Research Commiktee will look to the experienced members of the Scientific Advisory Board to the Tobacco Industry Research Committee to give of their time, effort and knowledge in further development of the extensive research program they have been guiding since mid-1954. During th8 past year more than 30 reports were published by scientists acknowledging support of their work by the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, bringing the total of published works to nearly 100. These reports represent definite contribu- tions to the store of knowledge regarding cancer, heart disease and other ailments of concern to the public. The complete sum- mary of progress under the Tobacco Industry Research Committee program will be told in the Annual Report of the Scientific Director to be published early in 1960, bMeanwhile, a number of scientists and doctors in this country, in South Africa, in England and elsewhere, issued research papers recognizing the inconclusiveness of the charges against tobacco. Such reports are apart from results under Tobacco Industry Re- search Committee sponsored research. From South Africa came a new scientific study published in the British Medical Journal that presented findings suggesting that air pollution may be a major factor responsible for lung cancer throughout the world. This study by Dr. Geoffrey Dean found that native white men in South Africa have long been the world's heaviest cigarette smokers, and yet they have a relatively low lung cancer• death rate. In England, the British Empire Cancer Campaign disclosed in its annual report this summer that five years of tests in which large numbers of animals were exposed to inhalation of "strong concentrations"' of cigarette smoke have failed to produce a single lung cancer. In Scotland, a detailed analysis of the behavior of, lung cencer led Dr. T. W. Lees, a pathologist, to conclude in a study that "there is no good evidence that smoking causes lung oencer." Numerous other studies reported findings that did not support or that tended to refute the charges against tobacco Dr. Horace W. Norton, professor of statistical design and analysis at the department of animal science, University of Illinois College of Agriculture, commented on another statistical paper about smoking: "I make a plea for integrity on the part of those affirming that smoking causes lung cancer. Let their various papers an~ public statements include (1) a frank acknowledgement that an such affirtnative• conclusion is a mere opinion, by no means fully substantiated by avaaable data and (2) a familiar standard of comparison, choosing something over which we have, or ought to have, some voluntary control, such as the death rate associated with the use of tl}e- automobile; " MEDICINE Studies Fail to Link Smoking and Cancer THIRTY-EIGHT'SCIEI*iTIFIC studies sup- ported by the Tobacco Industry Research Committee giv ect 2lRit'RETTeen smoking and lung cancer. The studies support the Committee's con- tention that "circumstantial or inferential data" on the existence of such a link are "not a substitute for expcrimentall and clinical' evidence based on direct observa- tions." The Committee, formed in.1954, claims that thC exFeripnces of the past six years, during which it has made grants to 90 scientists in 61 U. S. institutions, support the beliefs that: any role of cigarette smok- ing in llrng cancer and certain other dis- eases has not been proved as eausative; if tobacco has any role, it is uncertain, un- identified and' unanalyzed. The 38 studies are summarized in the Committee's 1959 report of the scientific director. The original reports were pub- lished in medical and scientific journals during 1959. In one study; mice were exposed to smoke five times weekly for nearly two years with no resultant invasive caneers of the Iung. Another test involved sewing pellets of tobacco into the cheek pouches of hamsters for long periods of time. Again, no can- cerous growths were produced. A The Committee's report points out that much more research is neede& to help clarify and' define significant problems on research in this field, and to determine the best way to find'~ the answers to them. "All evidence," it says, "including that which demonstrates the gaps and uncer- tainties and contradictions im our knowl- edge, should be presented to the public honestly and fully. The individual can form his own considered opinion only on the basis of complete information." The Journal of the American MedicaT Association, commenting editorially on smoking and lung cancer last December, said that neither the proponents nor the opponents of the smoking theory have suf- ficient evidence to warrant the assumption of' an all-or-none authoritative position.