Tobacco Documents Online

i - -----~""' The programs for other environmental carcinogens are little teora than public relations ginanicks, "paper tigers". dcsigned:to reassure : . .. . . . . . . . . -h.~'~~:.~.~ .. a concerned public that something is being done;s.hen it isn't. '1'his i standard practice in the NIH (14). The program on cigarette healih hazards is a farce. It consists of noisy scare campaigns which are le counterproductive--like most of "cancer education". It sets up meaningless "clearinghouses" to shuffle paper around--a successful gimmick tliat is r now used for chemical carcinogens. It will kill a lot of beagle dogs in a cruel and stupid expcriment that Will tell us nothing about huuan cancer. The sad truth is that the chemist who developed the taste process for Merit cigarettes has done more.for public health in~the past year than the 1aCI and the liCS combined have done in the past ten years. In sum, the money the NCI spends under the headiaig of "prevention" does very little to actua]l.y protect the public against hazards in the cnvirnnment-- even those whicb epideroiologi.cal rescarch has clearly identified years ago. S- pecific fiecomnend.^tions To correct the strategic mistal:es in the manaEement of the National Cancer lnstitute I have two speeific reconmendations: (1) The spc:ciall administrative stTucture for the 1.C1 that set , institutes in the HIH should bcaabolished. Coament: The superstructure was )argely engineered :nd controllc:d ~ by the American Cancer Society, ;~ principal,.bcneficiary of NCI funds. The liaison with the iVhite liouse, Benno Sclu!)idt, and the Director of the National Cancer Institute, Frank Rauscher, and maaly'laembers of the i/.

~ National C3ncer Advisory Board, such as Mary Lasker, all had close ties with ACS (36). 9?,is is also true, for that matter, for proposed replacements for frank Rauscher (who is now an ACS vice presidc:nt). Miat the supcr- e t . ° structure did was to concentrate power in a tight little professiona] ~ in-Sroup which then proceeded to rtui the Conquest of Cancer program as a i l closed corporation with a total disregard for the public interest. In ~ . . ~ ! any other area of the federal gove:rnment, this cozy set-up would have been regarded as very questionable or outright corrupt. This set-up is : not worth rcvamping and should sirpll• be jun} ed. The American Cancer CI grants or contracts.an Society should be barred froro getting any N FY78 and for the next 4 years. (2) The entire multi-layer deci$ion-maLing structure that Iiow exists between thc initial report of the site visitors and the final . ~ deci.saon of the National Cancer kdvisory Board--all the various study sections and other intermediatc levels--should be eliminatcd. The experience of the pa,st years shows that none of this machincry has protected the public or the public health. Comment: In any other part of government, it ti:ou]d be a cornrpt practice for the persons giving out the money and the per5ons

geLting•it to be the same people. It is a*corrupt practice even when it .. . .. . ... ., is ca) led "peer reviett" or "cancer research'". , to be retained, structured reports of the original site visitors are all - that are needed. If necessary an appeal procedure could be added. ` : Houever there is no genuine managerial function kor the mid dIe and upper _ - , The fund allocations should be Tnade by a separate office concerned solely with the technical task, doing as much to meet specified s objectives as is possiv]e with the resources availahle. Much of this computerized; nc>ither M.D.'s uor Ph.D.'s are needeJ for this phase of dcci.sion-making.

In answer to a qxteKt4Un, Bross stated - t-en years ac,to studies shcnnred :., falters were less dangerous. Wynder and others wrnald not agree till several yeaxs later. True started evezyone down the right Pat?r. I th1nl: we can have cigarettes wit3i less than 1 mii of tax witL- an aaceptahle taste and the government should yush this. The camf,aign gouiitain: What about temperruic:e and uacieration instead of scare Bross: I c3o?5't believe in scare tsc:tics. We should jvst work on (:Jacl: Mill,s to Walter Joyce, aune 16, 1977) I