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From PR NEWSWIRE via NewsNet Thursday October 11. 1990 Update #: 110 Item #: 40 BLACK AMERICANS' SOARING CANCER RATES CAN BE LOWERED BY PREVENTIVE MEDICINE NEW YORK, Oct. 11, /PRNewswire/ -- "Cigarette smoking and'other uses of tobacco are the single most important preventable cause of death in our society," said Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. "Each year smoking kills almost 400,000 Americans; that is more than 1,00&persons a day. The number of Americans who die each year of diseases caused by smoking exceeds the number of Americans who died in World War II," he continued. Dr. Sullivan spoke at today's "Cancer Prevention for Black Americans: Risks and Reality" Conference sponsored by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's Medical Department and its Statistical Bulletin magazine. ~ "Smoking is historically and culturally entrenched in our society. It will take more than the publication of volumes of scientific and medical facts. We need to counter the many forces and pressures to smoke," Dr. Sullivan continued. "Peer pressure, especially for the young is formidable. Women and minority citizens have been targeted with advertising and promotion campaigns aimed at increasing their tobacco consumption. The tobacco lobby is strong and well financed, and it is able to present a broad array of ancillary arguments designed to obscure the dangerous health~risks of smoking. The burden of tobacco- related' disease is particularly heavy in our minority communities, and it is contemptible that the tobacco industry has sought to increase their market there." Effective cancer prevention for Black Americans will be a reality only if "...public health seeks to achieve the maximum results with the available resources..." because... "the poor cannot afford to spend money for procedures which are ineffective," said M. Alfred Haynes, M.D., director, Drew-Meharry-Morehouse Consortium Cancer Center, Los Angeles, another conference speaker. "The d'eath rate for Blacks from~cancer of the esophagus is three times the death rate in the white population. For cancer of the lung, black males experience a 30 percent higher death rate compared to nonminority males,"' he continued, adding "although the ratio is lower for lung cancer, the number of excess deaths is so much greater that lung cancer, on the basis of magnitude alone, deserves a much higher priority." The second of MetLife's health issues conferences (in 1989, women's health issues were scrutinized), the meeting heard Dr. Haynes stress that, "One of the great barriers to effective prevention progress is a lack of respect." Dr. Haynes concluded, "We found in our own studies that as many as 43 percent of Blacks and Latins complained that a lack of respect was one of their main problems with the health care system. Persons who are ill may submit to a lack of respect just to obtain relief but persons who are asymptomatic are not likely to submit willingly to an environment which is characterized by a lack of'respect. Sometimes the lack of respect is only a perception. This is, however, a situation in which the perception i~s the reality." Dr. Woodrow A. Myers, Jr., commissioner of Health for New York City, presented the city"s perspective and problems imaddressing cancer

prevention for minorities in major urban areas. The conference brought together a group of nationally known experts, who gave an audience of health workers, leaders from the Black community, an&peopLe from voluntary organizations that work with~ minorities and in cancer education, an overview of the subject from four perspectives: basic science, public health statistics and epidemiology, critical cancer prevention strategies, and public health practice. MetLife hopes that the informationishared at the conference will help medical and lay professionals in their efforts to reduce the cancer burden among minorities. Charles B. Arnold, M.D., M.P.H., MetLife medical director and editor-in-chief of the company's Statistical Bulletin, chaired the conference, welcoming the participants. Also present were, Dr. Claudia R. Baquet, associate director for Cancer Control Scientific Programs, National Cancer Institute; Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, deputy commissioner for Policy and Research, New York City Department of Health; Dr. David Harris, commissioner of health for Suffolk County, N.Y.; Dr. Gary Mutlray Williams, director, Medical Sciences, and chief, Division of Pathology and Toxicology, American Health Foundation, and~professor, department of Pathology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, N.Y.; and Dr. Ernst Wynd'er, president, American Health Foundation. Statistical Bulletin is published by MetLife and includes articles on mortality, longevity, hospital and medical charges, and other health- related topics. For information on subscribing, write to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Statistical Bulletin, (Area 16-UV), One Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. /CONTACT: Elane Wagner of Metropolitan Life Insurance, 212-578-4072, for Cancer Prevention for Black Americans/ From.PR NEWSWIRE via NewsNet Thursday October 11, 1990 Update #: 13 Item #: 179 HEALTH GROUPS LAUD INTERNATIONAL RU ING IN CIGARETTE EXPORT CASE, DEMAND THAT U.S. GOVE CEASE FURTHER THREATS TO THAILAND WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ - American Heart Association and America Coalition on Smoking OR Health, today 1 international panel of the General Agre The American Cancer Society, Lung Association, united as the ded the recent ruling by an ent on Tariffs and Trade in Geneva, Switzerland, which recognized tha! tobacco prodUcts to Thailand is an interna simply a trade issue as stated by the U.S. "The ruling by the GATT panel is a vict the push to export American ional health issue and not overnment. Thailand and for the health communities in t United States who have vigorously opposed the to push deadly tobacco products abroad," said chairpersom. for the citizens of t country and in the .S. government's attempts an Du Melle, coalition "The GATT panel has clearly stated'that smok serious risk to world health and that basic human ng constitutes a health may be given priority over trade liberalization," said Du Melle of government relations for the American Lung Assoc who is also director ation.