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>F moldu -No Gause PoST GAZETTE •Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ueer poetor Claims ~ch' 1°' 19~ f Ca .~ 21/Z Packs Daily Smoke Irritants' Source, .Not Disease's Reason, Pitt Seminar Told By ALBERT W. BLOOM ,,. Pat-Gasette staII Writer _ ' Smoking two=and-a-half packs fo cigarets daily won't "cause" lung cancer, a University of Southern California pathologist declared here yesterday. ' "Cigarets are not a source" of the cause of cancer; rather they are a source of smoke "irriWts" said Dr. Paul Kotin, before the Uni- versity of Pittsburgh Graduate " School of Public Health sem- - inar. If people who don't smoke and don't breathe polluted air get lung cancer, those who do .these things should get lung cancer earlier than the others. They don't, said Dr. Kotin. tAbout 10 per cent of heavy cigaret smokers get lung can cer.) But a Link He calls cigarets but "a link In the pathogenesis" (disease causing mechanism) of can cer. "We are guilty of over-sim- pli8cation if we talk about the cause' of cancer as we talk about the 'cause' of pneu- monia," asserts Dr. Kotin. Cigaret smoking may open the lung cell doors to can- g. ,, .. cer, he conjectured. '`Dr. Kotin and his colleagues have been using air pollution ' as a tool-to study the factors of living environment in re- lation to the causes of cancer. " Virtually all tumors, cancer- ous ous or not, are due in greater or less degree to the world we live in, he believes. He said such tumors are affected by that environment. "Cancer isn't 'caused'," he emphasized. "Cancer is the end stage" of changes in the body cells. Duplicate Smog Sex differences may sharply influence the development of cancer, according to Dr. Kotin. Female hormones may block development of certain cancers In women, while male hor• mones "might give carcinogen• esis (development of cancer) a one-way ticket." Dr. Kotin's group duplicated the smog atmosphere of Los Angeles and exposed rats and other animals to It under con- trolled conditions. °~"PITTSBURGH SUN-TELEMA.PH ;~~Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania March 10;' 1960 < ~s Cigirets Not Cause'o Cigaret lovers carn breathemay open the lung cell doors cilia and mucous -- broken easier. to cancer, but cancer is caused down. Smoke and polluted air don't by many things ; However. he added. persons who smoke two and a half Cause lung cancer, according Sex differences may influ• to a University of Southern packs of cigarets a day aad~, ence the development of can- breathe polluted air don't get' California pathologist - they ~r, he said. cancer earlier than persons: just "irritate the lungs." Female h o r m o n e s may who don't. . Dr. Paul Kotin yesterday block development of certain He said only about ten per told a Pitt Graduate School cancers in womeri, while male cent' of heavy cigaret smokers of Public Health seminar: hormones might aid cancer de- get lung cancer. "'Cancer isn't caused. Can- velopment: . The Allegheny County Bu• ' cer is the end s t age of ~^He said rats exposed to Los reau of Air Pollution Control Angeles-type smog over an Ls going to study affects of changes in the body eells." ' extended period had their nat- air pollution in the district on He said cigaret smoking ural l u rI g defenses hairlike public health. They found that natural " defense In ' the Iung area, such as the hairlike cilia and mucous, were weakened and broken down under continual assault by the smoggy alr- all of which contains such as 3, 4 Benzyprene. " It was also discovered that body protein substances were able to pick out and take up the cancer "causing" substanc- es, once the cell defenses were shattered. The study's statistics showed that gasoline engine exhaust polluted the air heavily with cancer-causing benzpyrene. Allegheny County's own Bu- reau of Air Pollution Control, wheir set up under Herbert J. Dunsmore in the Health De- partment to enforce a pending new smoke control ordinance, is expected to investigate auto gasoline fumes as well as In- dustrial gases and vapors, as they affect public health.