Tobacco Documents Online

TFm CouNcir. FOR To13Aeco Rr,,SrAi:Cr-r - V. S. A. The committee comprising Dr. Sommers, Chairman, Dr. Cattell and I1r. Little. SU&TECT: A renewal application from Charles L. Rose, A.M. and Benjamin Bell, M.D. - #455R1. On April 1, 1965, the Scientific Advisory Board awarded a $10,000 "piggy-back" grant to Mr. Charles Rose and Dr. Benjamin Bell of the Boston V.A. Outpatient Clinic for a.ssisting a retrospective longevity study. On August 1, 1967, ~vrith the approval of the committee indicated', an additional $3,300 was given as a supplement to carry personnel through to October 1, 1967. This new proposal will carry forward the "seeding" concept initiated by this gxoup. . The unusual husbanding of funds along eighteen months beyond'the original termination date is one of the minor recommendations for this award. The major recommendations evolve around the fact that these data plus the new Normative Aging Studies, prospective, serve as the keystone to the staff project being carried out by Kurt Enslein~dealing with the develop- mqnt of computer methods for analyzing multivariate data. He has successfully developed methods to handle in excess of 100 variables simultaneously. It has already become evident that smoking is a result of a number of other characteristics and does not bear a primary relationship to longevity. As indicated in the enclosed progress reports, your support to this group is reaping the benefit of $154,00aper year of V.A. funding and at least an equal amount of other funding and effort fromiother sources. The impact of C.T.R. support is being appreciated and felt by the Veterans Administration, the U.S. Public Health Service and the National .Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Retina Foundation, Massachusetts Eye and'Ear Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard'University Department of Anthropology, Boston University Department of S'ocioloE^y and Anthropology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Boston V.A. Hospital Special Laboratory, Veterans Administration Central Office, U.S.P.H.S. Hospital, Baltimore, and National Institute of Dental Research. An additional indirect benefit may be mentioned. As a result of these informally coordinated effortsp monitored by the CTR staff, a number of our grantees are serving on advisory committees which appear to be influencing programs underway or contemplated by other agencies. 1003546630

It should also be noted tlat the methods developed by Mr. Enslein are being used to evaluate data related to smoking habits supplied by Dr. C. B. Thomas of the Johns Hopkins University Medical School, which had not been fully evaluated before. A small poriion of the data obtained by Drs. Sanford Chodosh and Maurice Sega1l is also now being evaluated by these new techniques. Reference: Progress Report The committee has received Progress Report No. 2, which covers the period from July 1, 1964' through June 30, 1967. In this rather long document the part marked "Report 3.1 Accomplish- ments, F.Y. 1967" describes the new approaches being developed and used. In particula.r, the section identified as Longevity Study by Charles Rose is relevant to CTR interests. It is the staff's opinion that the history of this project shows results beyond our expectations: The concept of using small sums to "seed" possible new approaches that may later be incorporated into a larger ongoing investigation is very appealing. The assurances of good judgment underline this group's past activities and projection.5 for the future. Though the application is for a twelve-month period we expect, from performance, that these funds will be used sparingly and judiciously. The budget understandably cannot be explicitly spelled out in the usual format, but the general target areas are outlined under Item 8'and appended Item 13. This project had the sympathy of Dr. E. B. Wilson, Chairman of the original subcommittee, as a case in which a small "piggy-back" grant might provide opportunity to correlate smoking habits with a large body of other data collected at the expense of other agencies. His prophetic judgment appears to have been justified. Vincent F. Lisanti, D.M.D. Robert C. Hockett, Ph.D.

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