Tobacco Documents Online

. They Speak too So,on v~ ~ xTh*rt ~~~H ~ eecen blast ofthePublicealth Pine Bluff Arkansas ' Service on "Smoking and Lung Cancer" gives'~ ~'t December 8~ 1959 usotficial assurance that if we don't smoke and . get lung cancer anyway-it won't be from smok- '~~ ~g . V., t~ . ~y z iity? This Is about as far as anyone can go 'lq the light of present knowledge, yet, in the ef- fort to make tobacco appear the culprit, this ' Government report drags out tired old statistics ~_ G that were presented to the public years ago, yet admits that experimental evidence does not ? snpport the theory of smoking as a cause of i lung cancer. k~ - ^;' 1he Public Health review also admits that - we still don't know the effects of air pollution ~~.~ and occupational exposures and that the tobaa co theory does not explain differences in Iuna r~e4 cancer incidence rates. l ~~°; Dr. C C. Little, scientific director of the 5 .~. t' Tobacco Industry Research Committee, and wior as spent 50 years In cancer research notes , that the report gives little or no attention new evidence of recent months that: Finds that people descnbed as the world's heaviest cigarette smokers have low lung cancer death rates compared with people who smoke less but have been long exposed to urban air pollution. "2. Shows that direct inhalation of tobao- 'eo smoke by laboratory animals over long pe- riods of time has not resulted in causing lung cancer In these animals. "3. Reveals that human lung tissues under- ; go changes, considered suspicious by some, that qare found among both young and old, non-smok- ers and smokers, while lung tissues 'may be per- fectly normal in heavy smokers : "4. Sonfirms the long-established but Ilt-`; -i Ue-publicized fact that lung cancer occurs more frequently in people who have a medical, history of previous serious lung ailments, such as tu- berculosis, pneumonia and influenza, indicating a relationship of possible significance" . It will be recailed that the commotion over lung cancer and smoking arose with the discov- ery that laburatory animals developed skin can- cer after being painted with tobacco "tars"- Cer tainly; the failure of smoke inhalation tests is more significant in view of the fact that people smoke tobacco rather than using it as a cos- metic. All in all, the Public Health review may be criticized for undue reliance on the published opinions of those who have been long comrrtit- ted to the theory that smoking is the principal cause of lung cancer. On balance, most thoughtful people, we t*. lieve, will go along with Dr. Little's summation that "we are only at the threshold of understand- ing the breadth and depth of the lung canqrr 3roblem". (This editorial was distributed by U.S. Press Association and has been seen in many newspapers.) ~ 'tr~ r rxh;.iPOST ,.. : ` Bridgeport, Connecticut Vt~December '1y 1959 Y ~ . ji)x +aA Nation Smokes Despite Warning The contrcversial issue over the report- ed incidence of lung uncer-and cigarette ` smoking erupted again last week when U.S. h[ Surgeon General Leroy E• Burney said the ' weight of evidence implicated smoking as _t rY the main cause of the disease . Based partly on new evidenee, it was' tlie Public Health Service's strongest state- ~~ment yet issued on the subject. The Sur- geon General went even further, declaring that no method of treating tobacco or fil- tering smoke has been shown to be effective "in reducing or eliminating the hazard of lung cancer." The Public Health head was attacked' immediately by the tob industry, its seietitific director, an others. Dr. Burney's poinis are not supported' by experimental evidence„they declared, and called his sta- tistics "flimsy evidence." • '6%,Tobaeco shares slumped on the New t' York Stock Exchange, but there is new :--evidence to indicate the slump will be short-lived.,The Internal Revenue Service,, which collects the federal tax on cigarettes, revealed tigarette consumption figures for September, showing shipments of more `than 39 billion cigarettes in the month, a 1 billion more than in September, 1958. Total ii''productioa was up 33 per centto 42.7 bili .,., lion units. + The Agriculture Department expects 48S billion cigarettes will~be produced this year, a 3 per cent gain above 1958, with even greater production forecast for 1960 because of increased population and a rise in the number of women smokers. -- It is obvious that if there has been a de- eline in cigarette smoking by-persons who iear, lung cancer, the number giving up the weed is so small it can hardly be measured, Figures from the Internal Revenue Service are cold statistics, having nothing to do with the health controversy. They are a clear indication that in spite of certain medical statisticS, and all~ sorts of warn• ings, the American people are not con- vinced that there is much if any danger in smoking. Research will and must go on until one side or the other can produce proof beyond any reasonable doubt that cigarette smok- ing is or is not harmful; Neither group has been able to accorOplish that yet, but if the tremendous rise in production is an indica- tion of the public mindi it is plain that it is on the side of the producers. ®