Tobacco Documents Online

RADIO TV REPORTS, INC. 41 EAST 42ND STREET. NEW YORK. N. Y. 10017. 697-5100 FOR HILL & KNOWLTON PROGRAM News STATION WPIX-TV DATE December 4, 1967 - 10:00 P.ri. CITY New York LINK BETWEEN SMOKING AND LUNG CANCER DENIED CRAIG SPENCE: Nobody knows what causes lung cancer. At least in the opinion of the gentleman in the picture, Senator Sam Ervin Jr. of the tobacco-growinq state of North Carolina. And for just that reason, today he proposed a massive research program as part of a rebuttal to New York Senator Robert Kennedy. You may recall that Bobby has introduced a bill calling for so-called health controls on the tobacco industrv, SENATOR SAP4 S. ERVIN JR.: I think there are people who would like to pass laws to prohibit the use of cigarettes and deny them, the individuals, of the right to smoke cigarettes. In other words, would like to regulate the personal habits of people. Now I don't know whether Senator Kennedy goes that far, but those essentially who are advo--who keep agitating about this matter are, I think, like the prohibitionists of old, who caused the 18th Amendment to be inserted in the Constitution. And I think that the prohibition of cigarette smoking, like the prohibition of liquor drinking, is something that'd be very difficult enforce. INTERVIEWER: Was the law against drinking, and!the law against the possession and manufacture? ERVIN: Yes, against all of it. Everything was outlawed then. INTERVIEWER: Do you think that they are advocating going that far with cigarettes? ERVIN: Well, they are starteddown that road. I think if they would study this question seriously, that they'd come to the conclusion there is no proof at the present moment of any casual relationship between smoking and lung, cancer, and they'll come to a conclusion that neither myself nor any other person on the face of the earth knows what causes any kind of cancer. 2. OFFICES IN:. NEW. YORK • OETROIT •LOe ANGELES • WASHINGTON. D.. C. •SAN FRANCIiCO - NEW ENGLAND • CHICAGO