Philip Morris
Fields
- Author
- Lincoln, J.
- Area
- WEISSMAN,GEORGE/OFFICE
- Type
- LETT, LETTER
- Recipient (Organization)
- Veterans Administration Medical Center
- Named Person
- Grant
- Kroes
- Myddleton
- Szepsenwol
- Vaillant
- Recipient
- Jarvik, M.E.
Document Images
PHILIP MORRIS
INCORPORATED
120 PARK AVE NU E. NEW YORK, N.Y. 10007
Jersox E Ltxcoux
VICE PRE3IDENTi..$7RATEGIC RESEARCM
June 9, 1986
Dear Dr. Jarvik:
My reaction to the galley proofs you enclosed with
your letter of May 30th is particularly to the first
sentence in the summary paragraph and depends in
part on the construction the reader can be expected
to place on the word linking, in the context of the
whole paragraph.
As a matter of fact, I can cite data that seems to
me to be discordant with any definition of "linking."
Note the following:
1962 cigarette consumption
(per capita age 15 and over,
per annum)
1961-65 animal fat consumption
(average grams per capita,
per day)
Argentina Venezuela
1577 2123
67.5 27.4
6.9 2.8
42.3 12.8
93.1 41.2
162.1 88.4
Lung Cancer Death Rate per 100,0001
Ages 35-44
45-54
55-64
65-74
11980 data for Venezuela, and
simple average of 1979 and 1981
for Argentina.

Although the pair of countries I have selected presents
one of the most striking contradictions, it is not a
sport. Multiple regression analysis for a broad list
of countries with lung cancer as the dependent variable
and several dietary variables plus smoking, GNP, alcohol,
etc. yields a significant statistical relationship with
the dependent variable only for animal fat. I believe
this was one of the topics I covered when I visited
you in Cal ifornia .
Note also that two investigators, Szepsenwol and Kroes,
have produced lung cancer in experimental animals by
high fat diets while attempts to produce it from
cigarette smoke inhalation have been unsuccessful.
There are other points: e.g. the failure of the
"intervention" studies to indicate a mortality dis-
advantage for cigarette smoking when smoking less
versus smoking more was randomly determined by whether
the respondent was selected into the test group or the
control group. Also, there is Dr. Vaillant's analysis
of the Grant study in which no statistically significant
association of cigarette smoking with premature mortality
was found when a summary psychosocial variable was in-
cluded in the regression analysis. Also, as Dr. Myddleton
recently pointed out, the detailed data from the largest
prospective study of smoking and mortality does not show
a consistant dose response relationship.
The foregoing is an initial and personal reaction. If
anything further develops, I will let you know.
Sincerely,
Murray E. Jarvik, M.D.
Chief, Psychopharmacology Unit
Veterans Administration Medical Center
Wilshire and Sawtelle Boulevards
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Los An
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