Tobacco Documents Online

.,° -s ?e~ rise in lung cancer among Americans: . ';- ; ;; The tobacco industry, in quick retort, says that the facts don't support Burney's contention, that *' other factors were ignored by the Federal official In arriving at his conclusions. We won't attempt to judge this situation here ~ Burney's announcement did seem to lack support ~ ing evidence that was solid. On the other hand, , '. . the tobacco industry's experts have a selfish pur- pose to serve and their views must be weighed~ in ~ ' that light. : - The point that strikes us is that such pro IIouncements are unlikely to have any appreciable effect on smoking habits of Americans over any : extended period. Mass warnings are difficult to relate to individual behavior, so until one's own physician telIs a person to stop, he's likely to ignore such statements as Burney's. And, since more doctors smoke than not, who are they to tell us not to do the same? ' . . =, ' -.- On this inconclusive note, we'll move on 'to another subject, having snuffed out the butt of our cigaret and~ reached for another MORNING EAGLE Wichita, Kansas November 28, 1959 . . . _,.., ._. .-.. .~., n CCi,qarets, Cancer; People Closing the cover on our lighter and inhaling deeply frum a newly lighted cigaret, we now set hands to typewriter to comment on the latest pro- nouncement concerning cigarets and caneer. ! Surgeon General Leroy E. Burney announced ,this week that the preponderance of evidence .-~points to cigarets as the chief cause of the alarming ` ~ ti r G:AZETTE . " Pittsbtnrgh, Pennsylvania ' r~~~~, -November 28, 1959 a rtoclasts l he I c o IRST, there was Arthur S. Flem- '.ly- ~ ming the Secretary of Health ,, , . Education and W e 1 f a r e, to sour ~ Thanksgiving with derogatory re- marks about cranberries. Now, the Surgeon General of the ~' U. S., Dr. Leroy E. Burney, takes out ~+ th on aft i h i t i h e s r g- ,~ garets w at s ; er c t w est landuaQe that the Government has yet used in linking them to cancer. "The weight of evidence, at present,":...~?f savs Dr. Burnev. "implicates smokinl[ ' ~. s as the principal etiological [causative] factor in the increased incidence of lung :~ ~ cancer ... Ci aret smoking particularly. is associate with an increased chance ~, of developing lung cancer." . And Dr. , Burney also claims: "No me~hod of treating tobacco or filtering the smoke .~f has been demonstrated to be effective in ','`' ` materially reducing or eliminating the `~,~' hazard of lung cancer." Furthermore, Secretary Flemming, not satisfied with his cranberry stew, has spoken unkind words lately about misleading toothpaste ads. As we sip our cranberry juice puff , the weed through a filter tip, and smile. ~ in the certainty that our toothpaste is- ; fighting d e c a y all day, we wonder ~ what things are coming to, in Wash-a;; ingtom Next they'11 be telling us that " a pen can't write through butter. COUR=_ JOURNAL Leiu_isville, Kentucky ;.,November 29, 1959 he Craiiberry Bog And Cigarette Fog 1 giving turkey at the White House, but ~PPLE SAUCE accompanied the Thanks- cranberries held their accustomed place at Vice President Nixox's house. Thus the citizen who looks to the Administration for guidance in health matters was left in some confusion- a confusion further confounded by the fact that the public Health Service chose the same holiday for a renewall of its attack on ciga- rettes. The effect was simply a renewal of the debate between those on the one hand, includ- ing the Public Health Service's chief, Surgeon General BuxNL-r, who relate cigarettes to lung cancer, and those on the other hand who insist that' no relation has been proved. The tobacco industry, including both the manufacturers and growers, reacted with predictable vigor to Dr. BuxNmr's argument, which had the implicit support of Secretary FY.EMnarrrG of the Depart- ment of Health, Education and Welfare. It was Mr. FLEMMING who set off the cranberry crisis. Smokers are more devoted to tobacco, evei when inhaled through filter tips (which, inci dentally, Dr. BURNEY says are of little or no avail ), than anybody is to cranberries. Who ever heard of a cranberry addict? Thus a cigarette crisis, comparable to the cranberry crisis, is unlikely, and we imagine . that the housewife who shrank from cranberries in the supermarket will, if she smokes, patronize the cigarette shelves as always. Scientific evidence is adduced on both sides of the cigarette argument, and the layman feels unqualified to participate. Its present renewal sounds to him like another installment of an old serial, enlivened this time by Repre- sentative WArrs of Kentucky, 'whose district is a heavy producer of fine burley. "Perhaps," said 141r. WArrs, "Secretary PLEmMnNG has had his subordinates throw up a smokescreen to hide the fact that he is still stuck in the cran- •berry bog." Meanwhile, the smoker, lost In a fog of conflicting claims and statistics, soothes his nerves in the usual way.