Tobacco Documents Online

N(~EWS 4-obSegLwz ~ I L L L l 7?D r -r^ ancer ~ Saciet- Y Was Wrong ~ Some eight m:ar;ths ago, just as House and Senate conferees :.:•.iwere about to meet to resolve ~ differences on the 1970 anti- : cigarette bill, the. American Cancer Society called a news : conference to clinch public opi- nion in the matter and to en- --courage acceptance of the bitl's tougher verison. Society of- ficials, spealung for two researchers, announced that' "for the first time" lung cancer had been induced in dogs as a result of heavy cigarette smoking: '° The press conference apparently successful --then. .It has put the on the spot now. Nv as an str et;e so^ic:ty ;. H o r a c e Kornegay, former Nnrth Carolina congressmar, who now heads the Tob,-,cco Institute, has repeatedly called' for release of the "smoking dogs" study for independent. -ev•aluation by other medical researchers. Properly, he has turned to the Congress to point up the -society's four separate rejections of his request.. In a letter to congressmen earlier this montn, Kornegay restated key phrases of the society's original press an- nouncement: Results of the smol:irg dogs study uFere term- ed "a significant achit~vement" '- that should have a "significant impact" on cigarette promotion , and ef'fectivclv refute conten- . tions that lung cancer charges are "only statistical:" -The research on ~,hich these assertions were made still has not been published. In fact it has been rejected by the New EncJland Journal of Medicinee and The Journal of the A?ncricarz Medical Association. One of the researchers has ? changed his position from the original announcement. He rrow, says that' lung cancer was pro- duced in two dogs instead of twelve. And still the American Cancer Society has not publish- ed' the: study and v: ill not release it for independent analysis by other researchers. Kornebay, in his letter to con, gressmen,, fairly charges the society wit1v having misused! science to infltience anti-smok- ing legislatiom And just as fair- ly it can be assumed that the society admits its guilt with its continuing, silence on the , issue. Not even the Tobacco Institute argues that smoking ' is heathful. But it proEaerly, defends smol:inU from the kind of passionate exaggeration and apparent deception practice3; by the cancer society on tiois notable occasion. The society should admit its mistake and retract its announcement. It hasn't been careful and . truthful, and it should say so. •_' .