Tobacco Documents Online

I- I I I I i I I I I I L Dear Doctor: The Tobacco Institute has not accepted the statistical association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer as etiologic proof' because of the lack of biologic confirmatiom You will recall that in, 1964 the Surgeon General's Report acknowledged that there was no experimental evidence that tobacco smoke coul& produce bronchogenic carcinoma. The subsequent reports of the Public Health Service specifically questioned whether the typical characteristics of'~ human squamous celli lung cancer had ever been experimentally produced by tobacco smoke in animals. In February, 1970, the American Cancer Society presented new experimental evidence to news media claiming: "For the first time, scientists have produced lung cancer in a significantly large experimental animal as a result of heavy cigarette smoking." The Tobacco Institute sought immediately to have this new "evidence" evaluated by independent pathologists and other investigators. The American Cancer Society, however, refused~ to show the slides and supporting data to such an impartial group of experts. Following disclosure of these facts by the Tobacco Institute, The New York Times on May 9 published an editoriali in which it supported the Institute's position that scientific investigators should have complete freedom to examine the basic evidence. The Times characterized as an: "error of judgment"' the American Cancer Society's stated refusal to submit these findings toia committee chosen by the Tobacco Institute or any other group. It also viewed'with disapproval the suggestioni made by the Cancer Society; following the Tobacco Institute announcement, that the data be reviewed by the Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, since the Public Health Service is already on record as believing that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health, In the belief that the quality of medical research is a matter of concern to physicians, the Tobacco Institute presents to the medical profession, for its consideration, the Tobacco Institute's recent announce- ment on this subject, and the complete correspondence between the American Cancer Society and the Tobacco Institute. The Tobacco Institute 1776 K Street, N'.W. Washington, D.C. 20006