Tobacco Documents Online

~ r Cigarettea And Cancer , ~s 1 ~'m~~` Y r' CORD ~' ": -`That old bogeyman of the cigareite Troyy New York :amoker-cancer acare-.ppears on the k~+• ti 1'Tovember 30, 1959 horizon again~ Out for the title of 'the ,; A , 7 4V most unpopular man of the month , among the cigarette manulacturers, Dr. '~ 4 SLelZillg ~ Illinois 4 ~'i Leroy E. Surney„aurgeoa general;,bas December i!0, 1959 ' x some grim pronouncements to make ie•. garding the relationship of cigarette {~ ;• Whether Cigarette Smoking-Cancer Have Relation, smpk;ng .nd cancer of the luag Is A Matter ttraeting Attenion Of This Nation! Dr. Burney„who smokes only cigar ;kThe situation seems to be: While the United States govern- and pipe himself, stands fitm against i ment has full legal authority to keep you from possibly catching ~ dissenters. He said' flatly that 16e ." r cancer through cranberries poisoned by weed-killbrs, it has no " weigbt of evidenee" indiets .making . such authority to keep you from possibly Catching lung cancer 4 through smoking cigarettes. aa the principal factor in the growing r' What's more, nobody now has any notion of trying to get a]aw inettase in lung cancer and that ~ passed which would try to make people stop amoking• cigarette smoking is "Qarticularly as "~ F. The legall difference between a cranberry and a cigarette sociated" with the increase. He is not In case your children aren't able to figure this out for you - 3s tlmid in giving counseL He insisU that that eranberries are food and cigarettes aren t ;,. * * k neither the use of filters nor the treat p: ~ t a VY 'rh a:;' r ment of tobacco reduces the haaar The law gives U. S. Food and Drug Administration full author-d and warns that the best insurance it to protect the public from contaminated foods, drugs and ~ r aatinst eaneer, oof the lung is to stop ¢ostaetlces. Cigarettes caa't be classed as cosmetics, even though smoking. T ^7? 5tr.k;y some people wear them and women put lipstick on ' The use em. of The Surgeon General s condemaa ' contaminated lipstick can be prevented, but not cigarettes. e:'= ~an appears in an article written for So FDA Commissioner George P. Larrick had the law on his „ aide when he moved ln to pratect you Irom cranberry cancen He the Journal of the American Medical can t do a thing to protect: you from cigarette cancer. . Association, This is probably the ~+'• This background explains the statement by' Dri Leroy E. ' ' farthest the official and the United Burney, surgeon general of the U. S. Public Health Service, . 'States agency have gone in pointing warning that cigarette smoking is the principal causative factor up the dangers from smoking. fn the Increased incidence of lung cancer. , His article cites a study whioh shows He was using his legal authority to disseminate information •mat a person who smokes cigarettes That' on a matter pertaining to safeguarding the public healthhs - has almost three times the risk of all he can do In this case. dying from lung eancer as 6tle pipe Public Health Service has no legal authority to stop people from smoking even if it' could prove that' more people would get smoker, and seven times that of the lung cancer from tobacco than would get' other kinds of cancer - cigar smoker." The Surgeon Genenl'a from eating contaminated cranberries• points are gldomy ones and are cal-. Some thought has been given to the idea of passing a law to eulated to leave the habitual cigarette ;' classify tobacco as a food and bring St' under the Food' and Drug smoker somewhat shaken. Act. But this gimmick might' not ata.nd up. e . Meanwhile the cigarette tradesmen 7k * * are not taking this blow lying down. Tobacco Manufacturers sometimes tangle with the law when James P. Richards, president of the they introduce brands of cigarettes for which they claim medicinal T o b a c e o Institute, declares t h a t use. If claims are made that a certain cigarette will cure or pre- Burneya findings are a lot'of nonsense. vent a diesase like bronchitis, it' can be classed aa a drug and He also can recite chapter and verse ic brought under the Food and Drug Act. ' where the Burney forebodings are in 1-: There's a case pending now against a eigarette for which the - error- He finds among other things that claim was made that It would help In reducing weight. ". Mwst such cases end In false advertising complaints before Deople described as the world's I+ ° the Federal T.ade Comm7sslon Unethlcal manufacturers stay out heaviest cigarette smokers have low . of •the clutches of Food and Drug Administratibn by making their lung cancer death rates compared with tlaima in advertiaiing, but not repeating them on the label of the - people who smoke less but have been 'package itself. . long exposed to urban air poilntioa.' If the label doesn't givi directions for achieving the benefits We have decided to wait until the elafined In the adrertlsing, however„misbranding charges can be -.noise has quieted down before making brought against the manufarturer In a squeeze play. • our own decision. We had qualma about A still untested course of actioti being considered is based' on cranberries two weeks ago. But we ate the assumption that the filters In clgarettxs are medical devices cranberries on Thanksgiving - In our to preventing poisoning by the tara In tobacco smoke. Medical devlces come under Food and' private poll we found 9 out of 10 fsm Drug law. ilies did also. Now stories are coming out of Washington about the danger of using lipstick. Another fight for the Public Health Service is shaping up regarding the eating of' jelly beans. The best solution is to go off by yourself and debate the pros and cons of all these matters. They are among the many littlee decisions in, life that you have to make for yourself. Life u a great hazard, after all. The element of chance is tremendouu. We wager that confirmed cigarette smokers may reduce the intake slightly, but will keep right on smoking the weed, Surgeon General Burney now declares, however, that no method of filtering the amoke or treating tobacco has proved effectlve In reducing the hazard of lung canceri There are other legal blocks. Public Health Service has full authority to prevent the apread of communicable diseases. The general welfare and interstate commerce clauses of the Constltu- tlon also apply. But nobody has yet proved that cancer is a eommunicable disease. Neither has anyone proved that' tobacco smoke causes cancer. The extracted tars of tobacco have induced cancer Sn laboratory atlce.. But the tobacco people argue that ttiese tars are so weak In ordinary amoke that the risk ls minlmized. They also argue that there's a lot more danger of injury or - death in an automobile accident, crossingg thee street or going to and from work: And nobody wants a law to stop these activitl0i