RJ Reynolds
A History of Cancer Control in the United States 1946 (460000)-1971 (710000) Book One. A History of Scientific and Technical Advances in Cancer Control.
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Document Images
. A Mstoy iiof
Cancer Control
in the
U n ited States
1946-1971
Book One A History of
Scientific and
Technical
Advances in
Cancer Control
Prepared by the
History of Cancer Control Project,
UCLA School oi Public Health
pursuant to Contract No. NOI-CN-55172,
Division of Cancer Control and
Rehabilitation, National Cancer Institute;
principal investigator,
Lester Breslow, M.D., M.P.H.
DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH, EDUCATION,
AND WELFARE
Public Health Service
National Institutes of Health
National Cancer Institute
Division of Cancer Control
and Rehabilitation
DHEW Publication No. (NIH) 79-1517
1

BOOK ONE
A HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ADVANCES
r IN CANCER CONTROL
125

I1CKBLOCI{'S CARTOON
JAN
"COULP YOU NURRY AAV FINP A CURE FOR CANCER?
TNAY WtllD BE SO MUCH EASIER TNAN PRE1dEtAl'lON

TABLE OF CONTENTS (BOOK ONE)
Chapter 1. Occupational Carcinogenesis ................ 13i
Chapter 2. Carcinogenesis Bioassays ................... 157
,
Chapter 3. Tobaccogenic Cancer ........................ 109
Chapter 4. Detection of Uterine Cervix Cancer ......... 197
Chapter S. The Role of Mammography in the Detection
of Breast Cancer ...........................
Chapter 6. The Detection and Diagnosis of Large
Bowel Cancer ...............................
Chapter 7. Cancer Treatment ...........................
Chapter 8. The Rehabilitation and Continuing Care
of the Cancer Patient ......................
r
273
319
3069
423
' r,
129

I
CHAPTER 3
TOBACCOGDNIC CANCER
Introduction
In 1919, when Alton Ochsner was a junior in medical school at
Washington University in St. Louis, a patient with cancer of the lung
was admitted to Barnes Hospital, the teaching hospital for Washington
University. In a short time, the patient died. Ochsner recalled the
incident:
Dr. George Dock, who was ar} eminent clinician and pathologist,
asked the two senior classes to witness the autopsy because, as
he succinctly said, the condition was so rare he thought we
might never see another case as long as we lived. Being very
young at the time and enamored by the clinical knowledge and
judgment of our eminent professor of medicine, I was greatly
impressed by this extremely rare condition. (1)
hfiien Ochsner recorded these recollections in 1973, he was 77 years
of age. Lung cancer--a condition "so rare. ..we might never see another
case as long as we lived"--had, in fact, become a modern epidemic of
massive proportions. The disease currently kills upwards of 83,000
Americans each year; in 1976 an estimated 65,200 men and 18,600 women
died from the disease. (2) As a result of perhaps the most important
* Principal Researcher/hYiter: Larry Agran
169
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twentieth century advance in carcinogenesis, it is now stated with con-
fidence that approximately 80 percent of all lung cancer deaths in the
United States are caused by cigarette smoking. (3)
The Early Evidence
After graduating from medical school, A1ton Ochsner went on to
become a surgeon and an early leader in lung cancer surgery. He was
also among the earliest scientists to explore the relationship between
cancer of the lung and the use of tobacco.
Seventeen years elapsed before I saw another case of lung cancer,
at the Charity Hospital in New Orleans after having come to Tulane
University as Professor of Surgery in 1927. There was nothing
particularly unusual about seeing a rare case in 17 years, but
eight other additional cases were seen in a period of six months
which,was extremely unusual. Having been impressed with the
extreme rarity of the condition 17 years previously, the sudden
increase in incidence represented an epidemic, and there had to
be some reason for it. All the patients involved were men; they
all smoked cigarettes heavily and had begun smoking in the First
World War. I then ascertained that very few cigarettes were
consumed before the First World War but during the war and after-
ward there had been a tremendous increase. Since there was a
parallel in the rise in sale of cigarettes and the appearance of
the new disease with a lag of approximately 20 years from 1914 to
1936, I considered that this might be the necessary length of time
for a possible carcinogenic agent in tobacco smoke to become
evident. The evidence was admittedly very nebulous, but it seemed
as if this was the most likely cause. (4)
European studies, most notably that of MUller in Germany in 1939, (5)
began to show a strong statistical association between lung cancer and
smoking. Two years later, in 1941, Ochsner joined with Michael DeBakey
in publishing the first American study to stress the cigarette-lung cancer
connection. (6) Based on clinical observations of autopsies performed in
the United States and in other countries, these researchers found that
the incidence of pullranary carcinoma had doubled over the 18-year period
studied, 'Vhereas the increase in the incidence of all carcinoma in all
U
170
0
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autopsies.kas relatively slight." (7) Noting the parallel increase in
cigarette sales over the same period, the study concluded, "It is our
definite conviction that the increase of pulmonary carcinoma is due
largely to the increase in smoking, particularly cigarette smoking,
which is universally associated with inhalation." (8)
Dr. Michael Shimkin has written of epidemiologists in these terms:
Epidemiologists are a mixed lot and come from many walks of
medical, sociological, and economic persuasions. They include
statisticians who refuse to be browbeaten by clinicians, physi-
cians who acquire a nodding acquaintance with statistics, and
geographic pathologists who learn to distinguish pathology
specimens from people. There are also macroepidemiologists,
who consider it beneath their dignity to deal with populations
of less than 100,000, and microepidemiologists, who look for
intuitive insights in unusual small clinical experiences. (9)
Intuition. Pathology. Statistics. E4ch was important as the
cigarette controversy emerged as the leading field in cancer epidemiology
shortly after World War II. Interestingly, amid an atmosphere con-
ducive to scientific inquiry, Washington University contributed more
than its fair share of prominent personalities to the fray. Of course,
Alton Ochsner was himself a product of Washington University. But there
were others. Dr. Evarts Graham, who in 1933 performed the first success-
ful pneumonectomy for cancer of the lung, was Ochsner's professor of
surgery in his senior year. Some years after his graduation, when Ochsner
first postulated that the increase in lung cancer was due to cigarette
smoking because of the parallel between the sale of cigarettes and the
increasing incidence of the disease, he was chided by Graham. Graham, who
was a very heavy cigarette smoker, said, "Xes, there is a parallel be- '
tween the sale of cigarettes and the incidence of cancer of the lung, but
there is also a parallel between the sale of nylon stockings and the in-
cidence of cancer of the lung." (10) Ochsner recalled further:
,
171 O
~
~
C
...
I

A few years later Dr. Graham wz-ote to me and reminded me (of the
incident] and said that he would have to "eat crow" because a
young man, a sophomore student at Washington University, had taken
his jDr. Graham's] cases of cancer of the lung and studied them
and the results of this-study convinced Dr. Graham that there was
a relationship between cigarette smoking and cancer of the lung.
This young sophomore student was Ernst Wynder. . . . (11)
In 1950, Graham and Wynder together published the results of their
epidemiological study. (12) In their investigation, they employed a
retrospective method of study: They interviewed patients already known
to have lung cancer and, inquiring about their smoking habits, they then
compared these responses to the responses of patients without.lun,g
cancer. The results indicated that proportionately more heavy smokers
were found among the lung cancer patients than the control group
population; fewer light and non-smokers were found among the cancer
patients than among the controls. 'Graham and Wynder concluded:
~
"Extensive and prolonged use of tobacco, especially cigarettes, seems
to be an important factor in the inducement of bronchogenic carcinoma." (13),
Persuaded by the evidence, Graham altered his personal'smoking
habits, decreasing his cigarette consumption to six per day=-two-after
each-meal: Then, in 1953, when Graham and Wynder were able to prove
that the tar from cigarette smoke when applied to the surface of animals
produced skin cancer, (14) Graham quit smoking altogether. But it was
too late. A few years later lle wrote to Alton Ochsner, "Because of our
long friendship, you will be interested in knowing-that they found that
I have cancer in both my lungs. As you know, I stopped smoking several
years ago but after having smoked as much as I did for so many years, too
much damage had been done." (1S) Wynder recalled the tragic irony of
Graham's death.
172

When he was dying I went to St. Louis. He was laying (~ic3 in an
oxygen tent. I remember he pointed to a little sign on the
oxygen tent where it said "No Smoking." lie said, "I should
have listened." He wrote me a very moving letter stating
that fate had really done him badly for all the work he had
done on lung cancer. (16)
On March 4, 1957, Dr. Evarts Graham, the first person to surgically
remove a human lung, was himself dead from lung cancer.
Important as it was as an epidemiological study, the Wynder-Graham
investigation was but the beginning of a great mid-century scientific
debate. Serious questions remained, not the least of them directed to
the techniques employed in the Wynder-Graham study itself. The
questions were raised not only by the tobacco interests that were ob-
viously threatened by the study's conclusions, but also by scientists
of considerable reputation. Dr. Lester Breslow, currently Dean of the
School of Public Health at UCLA, was a state public health epidemiologist in
California in the late 1940s when he first encountered Ernst Wynder
at work on the Wynder-Graham study.
About 1947-48--in that period--we were visited in Berkeley
by a medical student named Ernst Wynder. He came in with an
obviously very strong conviction that cigarette smoking was a
factor in lung cancer. Wynder had undertaken what we later be-
gan to call a retrospective or case control study of the matter.
He came by to let us know that he was going to be visiting the
hospitals in the Bay Area to interview patients and controls in
regard to their smoking practices. -
We thought he was a pretty brash young man. ..and asked
whether a member of our staff, named Hoaglin, could accompany
him around to the hospitals just to see what he was doing.
Hoaglin came back with a horrible story of poor technique, a
very sloppy approach to the interviewing.. And so we decided we
ought to do a proper kind of study. We were quite astonished
with the results, which were almost identical with those Wynder
was obtaining by what had appeared to us as very biased and
sloppy techniques. (17)
It was this remarkable similarity of results that made early con-
verts of Breslow and others. But still more was needed before a con-
sensus among scientists would emerge on the matter. Breslow's early
173

work, (18) like Ochsner's and Grahan: and Wynder's, was a retrospective
study with all its attendant problems. According to Breslow:
It seemed to me that the retrospective approach to the
matter--the case control studies--were vulnerable methodologically
on the grounds of bias of samples. The people already had the
disease; they were selected people who were being interviewed;
aad it is very difficult, if not impossible, to get perfect
controls. You depend upon what the patient recollects and is
willing to tell you and the accuracy of what he says about his
smoking habits. There were a lot of reasons why one could
doubt the significance of these retrospective studies. The issue
was only going to be resolved by what we later came to call
prospective studies. (19)
The Emerging Consensus
r
Soon after L'he Wynder-Graham study was published in 1950, a number
of prospective studies were organized throughout the country. The
prospective method examines the smoking habits of a sizeable population--
apparently healthy--and then follows that group over a period of years
in which -":te rateG and causes* of mortality are recorded. In this way,
the problerrs or retrospective falsification or the failure of memory
or the selection of improper controls are avoided. The most inf-'lue.itial
pros.pective study in the United States was that undertaken by Drs. E.
Cuyler Hanmond and Daniel Horn. (20) With the assistance of American
Cancer Society volunteers, Hamrrond and Norn tracked 187,783 American men
to determine what effect, if any, smoking habits had upon mortality.
The results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
in March, 1958, (21) confirmed the findings of the retrospective studies.
In fact, all of the prospective studies of the late 1950s--including the
1956 study of British doctors by Doll and Hill (22) and the 1959 Dorn
study of 200,000 U.S. war veterans with government life insurance
policies--(23) showed that the total death rate for cigarette smokers was
174

rctiraatel)' 70 i~rcCnt }:ig,ur that for nLn crK):crs7 l,uig
cancers, and cancers of other sites, accounted for a disproportionately
high nwnber of the excess deaths. In all of the studies, as the amount
of cigarette consumption increased, so did total mortality rates. In
terms of public health policy, an especially significant finding in the
Hammond-Horn investigation was that the mortality risk from smoking
decreased as the number of years of smoking cessation increased. (24)
By the mid-1950s, dispute among scientists investigating the
cigarette-cancer connection was waning. A consensus on the causal con-
nection was clearly taking shape. The cigarette, first described as
possibly "associated" with lung cancer and, later, as a "factor" in
the disease, was now described with increasing confidence as the over-
riding cause of the twentieth century lung cancer epidemic. In fact,
in this period of rapidly mounting scientific evidence, Surgeon General '
Leroy Burney, urged by NCI's Dr. Michael Shimkin, had a statement pre-
pared in 1957 concerning the cigarette-lung cancer connection. For well
over 2 years, Dr. Burney's statement remained mired in the federal health
bureaucracy, subject to countless revisions and clearances. (See Book Two,
Chapter 5.)
It wasn't until November, 1959, that the statement was finally
published--as an article in the Journal of the American Medical Associa-
tion. (25) Entitled "Smoking and Lung Cancer: A Statement of the Public
Health Service," the article declared: 'The weight of evidence ... implicates
smoking as the principal etiological factor in the increasing incidence
of lung cancer." (26) Interestingly, the Surgeon General's statement
received little publicity; and its overall impact on public policy was
negligible.
175

.In 1962, the Royal College of F'hysiciwis in Loi:don stated their
conclusion on smoking and cancer causation in the plainest of terms:
'The strong statistical association between smoking, especially of
cigarettes, and lung cancer is most simply explained on a causal
basis." (27) The report of the Royal College of Physicians went on to
raise the spectre of a second stage in the lung cancer epidemic--the
toll it was yet to take among women. Because women did not develop
smoking habits quantitatively comparable to those of men until after
World War II, it was hypothesized that the full effect of cigarettes on
the female lung cancer rate could not be assessed for some years, in
view of the time period ordinarily required before cancer manifests itself.
The Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health
In January, 1964, two years after the Royal College of Physicians'
report, the Surgeon General's Advisory ConQnittee on Smoking and Health
published what was to become the definitive American statement. (28)
In arriviing at its conclusions on the effects of smoking, the committee
experts evaluated three kinds of scientific evidence: (1) animal studies
in which the effects of smoke, tars, and toxic irritants were measured;
(2) clinical and autopsy studies of smokers and non-smoke'rs, such as the
Ochsner-DeBakey study; and (3) epidemiological studies, both retrospective
and prospective. Second only to its impact on the smoking-health con-
troversy, perhaps the most critical contribution of the Advisory Cornnittee's
report was to gain lasting acceptance for epidemiology as a bona fide
science that could no longer be dismissed as "mere statistics." While
epidemiology had been recognized for some time as useful in the study of
acute disease, the 1964 Surgeon General's report established epidemiology's
176

',)L1! 11)' 1l.`r 1e :ly.aL1o;1 01 L
Chapter 9 of the Advisory Committee's report was titled simply
"Cancer." The chapter's 136 pages consisted of an exhaustive review
of the epidemiological evidence not only with respect to tobaccogenic
lung cancer, but for other organ sites as well, such as the mouth,.:,,
larynx, esophagus, urinary bladder, and stomach; other chapters in the
report reviewed epidemiological evidence linking cigarettes to non-
neoplastic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and other
conditions. Dealing directly with the question of ascribing causation
based on a statistical association between a factor such as cigarette
smoking and a disease such as lung cancer, the Committee wrote:
Causal Si 'ficance of the Association. -- As already stated,
statistical me s cannot esta lis proo of a causal relation-
ship in an association. The causal significance of an association
is a matter of judgment which goes beyond any statement of
statistical probability. To judge or evaluate the causal r
significance of the association between cigarette smoking and
lung cancer a number of criteria raust be utilized, no one of
which by itself is pathognomonic or a sine ug_a non for judgment.
These criteria include:
(a) The consistency of the association
(b) The strength of the association
(c) The specificity of the association
(d) The temporal relationship of the association
(e) The coherence of the association (29)
Fmploying these criteria, the Committee concluded that:
1. Cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in men;
the magnitude of the effect of cigarette smoking far outweighs
all other factors. The data for women, though less extensive,
point in the same direction.
2. The risk of developing lung cancer increases with duration
of smoking and the number of cigarettes smoked per day, and is
diminished by discontinuing smoking. (30)
While making no specific policy proposals, the report went on to call
for "remedial action" to reduce the health hazard posed by cigarette
smoking.
177

f
Viewed historically, it is now apparent that the report had the
remarkable effect of really*settling the scientific issue whether
cigarettes indeed caused lung cancer. How was it that this second
Surgeon General's report proved so effective when the Burney report-
initiated in 1957 and published in 1959--had been so ineffective?
Several reasons emerge. First, the passage of time itself was a key
factor. Between 1957 and 1964, the findings of some of the large
prospective
A epidemiologic studies were being published, confirming earlier work,
and solidifying the growing scientific consensus on tobaccogenic cancer.
Second, in both its design and scope, the 1964 report was a far
more impressive document. Fmp.loy3ng a sizeable staff, the Advisory '
Committee took more than a year to exhaustively review virtually all
of the evidence at hand regarding the.smoking-health issue generally,
and the cigarette-cancer issue specifically. The full document, almost
400 pages long, reflected the,kind of ct..e. that would enable the report
to withstand the scrutiny and criticism that would inevitably follow its
release.
The third reason for the effectiveness of the 1964 report, as
compared with the-1959 Burney report, can be attributed to what might be
called the managerial factor. From beginriing to end, Surgeon General
Luther Terry sought to assure maximum impact of the report's findings---
whatever they might be. The report was not to be his per se, but rather
the report of an "expert committee," acknowledged by the President,
thereby gaining enormous stature. (31) Dr. Terry selected the 10-member
Advisory Committee in a way to virtually guarantee that there would be
no subsequent charges of bias. He insisted that no one could be a member
of the Advisory Comnittee if he had been publicly identified with any
178

position on the smoking-health question. (32) ASoreover, he astutely
allowed the Tobacco Institute to veto any proposed nominees to the .
Advisory Committee. (33) In this way, the Surgeon General managed to
bestow upon the Advisory Committee the tobacco industry's implicit en-
dorsement as to its objectivity. Throughout the investigation, all
meetings and staff work were conducted in a politically protected en-
vironment, based at the National Library of Medicine. (34) Dr. Terry
forbade the Corrmittee members to speak to politicians or the press.
In exchange, he secured assurances from President Kennedy and HEW
Secretary Ribicoff (and, later, Anthony Celebrezze) that the Committee
could carry out its work insulated from any political influence. (35)
Consistent with these precautions, there were no leaks or any other
disclosures to sap the final report of its desired impact. Finally,
when Dr. Terry released the report on January 11, 1964, it was with
the utmost fanfare--a carefully staged press conference to carry the
message to the American public. (36)
In the Aftermath of the Surgeon General's Re2rt, 1964-65
With the release of the Advisory Committee's report on January 11,
1964, the purely scientific phase of the cigarette controversy had largely
run its course. Almost immediately, the controversy shifted to the
political realm--a clash between public health considerations on the one
hand and private economic interests on the other. The stakes were evidentt
from the outset. The mere issuance of the Surgeon General's report,
coupled with the attendant publicity, produced a short-run, one-month
decline in cigarette sales of more than 15 percent. (37) But more sig-
nificant than this temporary impact was the fact that the report's release
179
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. ~
, ~.
. ~
:

signalled the nation's err;)arkation along a twisting pathway in search
of an appropriate cigarette policy. It is now clear that at several
points along that pathway- -stretching from 1964 to 1971--advocates for
the public's health stumbled across the elements of a truly effective
program in cancer control education, only to have the Congress inter-
vene to block the emerging policy and then redirect it along predictably
unproductive lines.
In the winter and spring of 1964, there was no requirement that
the Congress act in response to the Surgeon General's report. In fact,
it is likely that no action at all would have been forthcoming had it
not been for the maverick-like conduct of the Federal Trade Commission,
91
particularly its Chairman, Paul Rand Dixon, and commission member,
Philip Elman. Citing the Surgeon General's report, and then citing its
authority to regulate comnerce so as to eliminate unfair and deceptive
trade practices, in a classic document of administrative law, the FTC
proposed a trade regulation rule which would have required in every
cigarette advertisement (radio, television, billboards, and print media)
and on every pack, box, and carton of cigarettes, the prominent in-
clusion of one of the following warnings:
(1) CAUTIO:V--CIGARETTE SMOKING IS A 1ElLTH HAZARD: The Surgeon
General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health has found
that "cigarette smoking contributes substantially to mortality.
from certain specific diseases and to the overall.death rate;" or
(2) CAUTION: Cigarette smoking is dangerous to health. It may
cause death from cancer and other diseases. (38)
The fact that the regulation would have required the labeling of one of
these warning statements on every pack, box, and carton of cigarettes was
not nearly as signiticant as the requirement that the statement accompany
any advertising, including broadcast advertising. A disclosure statement
180

of the kind proposed by the FTC threatened to destroy the appeal of
radio and television advertising, an appeal of such enormous dimensions
that the industry was pumping nearly $200 million per year- -four-fifths
of its advertising expenditures- -into these media.
Faced with the impending FTC actiori, the tobacco lobby, whose
principal lobbyist was former Congressman Earle C. Clements (D-Kentucky),
turned to the Congress for help. (39) In substantial measure, the
industry received all the help it needed with the Federal Cigarette
Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965. (40) In this act, Congress
blocked the FTC's proposed regulations and required instead that as of
January 1, 1966, all cigarette packages, boxes, and cartons sold in the
U.S. must bear the statement: "Caution: Cigarette Smoking May be
Hazardous to your Health." Beyond this inconspicuous side-panel
requirement, the Congress refused to require that the mildly worded
warning statement accompany radio and television advertising- -the key
to the promotion of cigarette sales. In fact, the labeling act ex-
pressly banned the FTC, and any state or local agencies,_from taking
any action in this regard for a period of four years. Senator Frank
Moss (D-Utah) later lamented that the 1965 legislation effectively sus-
pended the entire apparatus of federal and state regulatory authority
in exchange for nine innocuous words on the side-panel of cigarette
packages. Representative John ;,ioss (D-Calif.) voiced his opposition in
these terms:
This legislation puts the Federal Government in the
position of saying that cigarette smoking constitutes a serious
health hazard, but that traditional guardians of public health,
the state and local authorities, cannot act to protect their
citizens if they believe a warning statement in cigarette
advertising would do so. (41)
.
181

The warning requirement, he said,
does little to act as a remedy to curb the cigarette health
hazard. . . A more realistic and responsible approach. ..would
be to warn the non-smoking consumer of the health hazard before
the product is purchased--rather than remind the individual who
already smokes and after he has the product in his possession,
that it may be harmful to his health. ...We must first concern
ourselves with public health and welfare, not legislate to the
whims of a special interest. (42)
When thq labeling requirements went into effect on January 1, 1966,
there was no significant impact on cigarette sales; per capita con-
sumption increased slightly in 1966, (43)
By way of separate legislation, the Congress took other action in
the cigarette field in 1965. As a means of maintaining the staff which
had served the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee, the Congress
appropriated $2 million to the Public Health Service to establish a '
.~
National Clearinghouse on Smoking and Health. (44) Lodged in the Cancer
Control Program in the Division of Chronic Diseases, the Clearinghouse
undertook responsibility for gathering and disseminating information on
smoking and health including, later on, the preparation and promotion
of anti-cigarette media messages. Under the direction of Daniel Horn,
who had contributed to the pioneering scientific work on tobaccogenic
cancer, the Clearinghouse, tiny as it was, nevertheless represented the
only programmatic evidence of a national effort to discourage cigarette
smoking.
The Banzhaf Decision and CoM essional Re-entry, 1967-71
In mid-1967, a year and a half after the labeling act took effect,
a young attorney named John Banzhaf III filed a Fairness Doctrine complaint
with the Federal Corrumnications Commission. In his canrplaint, he called
upon the FCC to make a finding that cigarette corrmercials per se con-
182

stituted statements depicting one side of a controversial issue of
public importance and that, accordingly, the Federal Comamications Act
required the FCC to order stations to provide "equal" time for the pre-
sentation of the "other side" of this public controversy. In a land-
mark decision, the FCC agreed with much of Banzhaf's argument and re-
quired broadcasters to accord a "substantial" amount of air time--
although not "equal" time--to the "other side" of the cigarette con-
troversy. (.4S)
With this decision, the nation was launched on a three-and-a-half-
year experiment in public health education by way of anti-cigarette
commercials. Affirmed by the courts in 1968, (46) the FCC action was
interpreted to mean that radio and television stations had to provide
roughly one free anti-cigarette message for every five pro-cigarette
messages. (47) Translated into aggregate terms, this meant that by
1969 and 1970, approximately $40 million per year in broadcast time--
free of charge--was accorded to the American Cancer Society, the
Tuberculosis Association, and other non-profit organizations in order to
present hard-hitting anti-cigarette messages. It was a unique era in
broadcast advertising, giving rise to a host of creative anti-cigarette
messages. For example, there were the messages depicting a pleasant scene:
people having fun, enjoying life. Then one of the people would light up
a cigarette and the voice-over caption would follow: "This is life. ....
This cuts it short." Another spot message was a parody of the Marlboro
man. A tough-looking, gun-toting cowboy pushed his way into a saloon,"
inhaling a smoky cigarette. Then he began to cough uncontrollably, and
was pushed aside by a clean-cut, non-smoking cowboy. Then the word
"cancer" zoomed up on the television screen and the voice-over announcer
183

said, "Cigarettes--they're killers."
Perhaps the most forceful of the anti-cigarette messages on television
was the one in which William Talman, the actor who played Hamilton Burger
on the Perry Mason series, introduced his family and then revealed that
he had lung cancer. He then urged smokers to quit and non-smokers not to
start. By the time this particular anti-cigarette message was on the air,
William Talman was dead from lung cancer.
While the FCC facilitated the era of anti-cigarette messages, it is
interesting to note that this novel venture.in public health education
had its beginnings in the voluntary sector, not the public sector. Indeed,
both in its origin and in its content, the anti-cigarette campaigr_ was
r
almost exclusively a product of the voluntary sector. And even within
that sector, some traditional voluntary health agencies, most notably
the American Cancer Society, were unwilling to back the initial Banzhaf
complaint. (48)
During the years 1967-1970, the Banzhaf decision had a major impact
on per capita cigarette consumption. After years of virtually unin-
terrupted growth in per capita consumption, there was a slight fall-off
in 1967--4280 cigarettes for every U.S. resident 18 years of age and
older as compared with 4287 in 1966. (49) In 1968, per capita con-
sumption fell again--to 4186 units. (50) In 1969, when monitoring and
public pressure was assuring widespread compliance with the Banzhaf
decision, anti-cigarette messages were in full swing; and per capita
consumption suffered its most severe drop-off, down to 3993 units. (51)
In 1970, a further decline was registered, down to 398S cigarettes. (52)
(See Figure 1,)
. r,
184

During 1969, Congress re-entered the picture. Its 1965 legislation
prohibiting FTC regulation of cigarette advertising was scheduled to
expire on June 30, 1969. Seizing this opportunity, Congress intervened
in the cigarette controversy for the second time. It enacted the Public
Health Cigarette Smoking Act which included two principal provisions.
First, in a minor concession to the flood of scientific evidence con-
cerning the deleterious effects of cigarette smoking, the Congress
changed the cigarette side-panel label to read: "Warning: The Surgeon
General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Hazardous To Your
Health." The second provision, which appeared to be a victory for
public health advocates, was to ban radio and television cigarette
advertising effective January 2, 1971. Privately, however, the
cigarette manufacturers favored a radio-television advertising ban. (53)
They believed--as it turns out correctly--that such a ban would serve to
undo the anti-cigarette campaign tied to the Banzhaf decision. With
the banning of pro-cigarette commercials, radio and television broad-
casters were no longer under a legal obligation to present the "other
side" of the controversy. Accordingly, on January 2, 1971, the anti-
cigarette messages virtually vanished from the airwaves. The country's
three-and-a-half-year experiment in mass media anti-smoking education
dried up almost overnight. Meanwhile, in 1971, cigarette promoters
managed to shift $150 million of their more than $200 million per year
in radio and television expenditures into other outlets, principally
newspapers, magazines, and billboards. (54)
The effect of all this upon per capita consumption was dramatic.
After an historic four-year decline in consumption, an upward trend re-
turned in 1971. In that year, per capita consumption rose to 4037 from
...
~-
~
r
185 ~'
c
~_ ~r

the previous year's 3985. (55) In 1972, the figure went to 4043; (56)
and in 1973 leaped sharply to 4147. (57) By 1973, per capita cigarette
consumption was approaching the 1963 peak figure of 4286. (S8)
(See Figure 1.)
FIGURE 1
Cigat ettes
4400 '
4300
4200
4100
4000
3900
3800
3700
;i6UU
3500
3400
3300 ._..r
Annual Per Capita Cigarette Consumption*
Surgeon Gcneral's Report ()an. 10, 1964)
r
(June 2, 1967) ,
Radio-TV Ad Ban takes effect ,
also ending anticigarette ad campaign
(Jan. 2. 1971)
55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
For the yrar 1960 and subscqucnt years. per capita consumption fiRures maintained by the
goveinnient were
cali idated by divid ing the total nurnher of cil;arette% ennsumed by the number uf Americans
eighteen yearsot older. 1 n
rarlivi veai.. the cdculation had been hased on the numher of Ameriuns filteen years or older.
Labeling Act takes effect (Jan. I, 1966) r,
Banzhaf Decisitm (FCC),
requiring anticigarette ads
186

The Federal Trade Commission was so alarmed at the turnaround in cigarette
sales that it recommended to the Congress in 1971--and repeatedly in the
years since--that funds be allocated to HEW to enter the marketplace and
purchase radio and television time for anti-cigarette messages, in order
to effectively re-establish the public health education program which
flourished from 1967-1970. (59)
Paralleling the legislative reversals, the National Clearinghouse
on Smoking ar.d Health also suffered a series of setbacks in the late
1960s. In 1967, the Clearinghouse went the way of its parent unit,
the Cancer Control Program, and was shifted to the Regional Medical
Programs Service, an organizational switch which made little sense in
terms of the Clearinghouse's work but was indicative of its posture as
a programmatic foster child, seemingly unwanted because of the
powerful congressional opposition which was part-and-parcel of its
operations. In 1971, the Clearinghouse was moved again, this time to.
the Center for Disease Control; meanwhile, its budgeted appropriatj.ons
were de~lining. In November of 1974., the Clearinghouse was physically re-
located from the Washington, D.C.Jarea to Atlanta, Georgia. At the same
time, its line item budget, less than $1.S million in fiscal year 1974,
was removed. With the loss of funding and with the move to Atlanta,
the Clearinghouse was effectively reduced to a programmatic nonentity.
Dr. Horn, the Clearinghouse's Director since its inception, resigned.
In evaluating the Congress' role as handmaiden to the tobacco
interests, Dr. Ernst Wynder observed:
The fundamental law of the politician is first to be
elected. If you don't get elected, you can't do anything.
If you took a position that you thought smoking was the worst
thing, and you came from a tobacco-growing state, you would
never get elected. So that's how you have the tobacco bloc.
LM
0
~.~
~
187 ~
' 0
~
.
~~ 0
~
.
,

And the way Congress works, because of seniority, tobacco
states supply the committee chairmen. They say, 'bkay, now
you work for me in this area and I'll work for you in that
area." ...That's why so many of these blocs are successful
perpetuating their particular line of propaganda. (60)
Statistical underpinning for Wynder's political observation rests
with the fact that an estimated 600,000 farm families, heavily con-
centrated in the Southeast, derive part or all of their livelihood
from tobacco sales. (61)
To further illustrate his point about the dynamics of special
interest politics, Wynder noted his own experience in challenging the
meat and dairy interests on the question of cholesterol and, in the
case of fatty meats, on the question of diet-related colon and breast
cancers :
The meat industry of course is very powerful, and so is
the dairy industry. All together, they are infinitely more
powerful than the tobacco industry. It is interesting, without
mentioning names, I went to see one Congressman once--from one
of the tobacco states. Ne said, "You must understand that I
have to do what I do because otherwise I can't be elected.
But nutrition, I'll help you all the way." Some time later
I saw a Senator from one of the dairy states who said, "I am
certainly anxious to help you in the tobacco area. But the
dairy area, leave it alone." (62)
Reflections on the History of Tobaccogenic Cancer
In reviewing the steps leading to the current near-unanimity re-
garding the carcinogenicity of tobacco, there are no discrete points that
can properly be labeled dramatic breakthroughs. Instead, the history re-
veals a process of evidentiary accumulation: first, the relatively small-
scale clinical studies; then a series of retrospective epidemiological
studies; and, finally, a number of large-scale prospective studies.
188

. The 1964 report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on
Smoking and Health had the effect of rendering a scientific judgment on
the significance of the evidence at hand. Largely.because of Surgeon
General Terry's adroit political management, the Advisory Committee's
conclusion on cigarette-lung cancer causation had maximun scientific
impact.
. The period 1964-1971 placed the cigarette controversy in an in-
tensely political arena. Congressional policymaking was dominated by
special interest lobbying, with the tobacco lobby able to exert enormous
influence through the traditional avenue of Southern committee chairmen.
The result was a feeble congressional response in 196S to the Surgeon
General's 1964 call for prompt "remedial action" to meet the serious
health hazard posed by cigarettes.
. After the almost accidental discovery of a successful anti-cigarette
policy--through the Federal Communication Commission's 1967-1970 applica-
tion of the Fairness Doctrine to radio-TV cigarette advertising--the
Congress was once again able to reassert its primacy in the cigarette
policy field, to the ultimate detriment of the public's health. There
was no presidential leadership forthcoming to promote a more health-
oriented legislative response in these critical years. Nor, for that
matter, was there leadership forthcoming from the National Cancer Institute
where, apparently, considerations of long-range congressional funding of
research took precedence over the need to develop a more effective
cigarette-cancer control policy.
...
189

i
Chronology cf Significant Events in the History
of Tobaccogenic Cancer
Mid-
1930s Dr. Alton Ochsner suspected cigarette smoking as a causative
factor in an observed clinical "epidemic" of lung cancer.
1939. Muller published one of a number of European studies indicating
1941 a statistical association between cigarette smoking and
lung cancer.
Drs. Alton Ochsner and Michael DeBakey published the first
1950 American study, based on clinical observations from
autopsies, which stressed the cigarette-lung cancer connection.
Drs. Ernest Wyrider and Evarts Graham published the results
arly
1950s of their retrospective epidemiological study, concluding
that cigarette smoking "seems to be an important factor
in the inducement of bronchiogenic carcinoma."
A number of retrospective studies followed the Wynder-Graham
effort, with investigators observing strikingly similar
r,
1953 findings.
Graham and Wynder produced skin cancer in animals by applying
Late the tar from cigarette smoke.
The results from a series of prospective epidemiological
1950s studies are published, (the Doll and Hill study of British
doctors--1956, the Hammond-Horn American Cancer Society
study--1958, the Dorn study of U.S. War Veterans--1959).
The strong relationship between prolonged cigarette
smoking and lung cancer was found in each of the studies.
1959 After more than a year of internal review, Surgeon General
Leroy Burney published a statement in the Journal of the
American Medical Association implicating smoking as the
principal etiological factor in the increasing incidence
of lung cancer.
1962 The Royal College of Physicians in London published their
report concluding that cigarette smoking was causally
related to lung cancer.
1964 Surgeon General Luther Terry released the report of his
Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health, concluding
that cigarette smoking was causally related to lung
cancer in men.
1965 The Congress blocked pending Federal Trade Commission regulations
controlling cigarette advertising, adopting instead a mild
cautionary statement to appear on cigarette package side-
panels.
190

1967 The era of anti-cigarette messages in radio-TV broadcasting
began with the FCC's Fairness Doctrine decision.
capita cigarette consunption began to decline. Per
1971 The Public Health Cigarette Snoking Act took effect, banning
radio-TV pro-cigarette advertising and simultaneously
ending the anti-cigarette media campaign. Per capita
consurrption began to rise.

Notes : Chapter 3
(1) Ochsner, A.: My first recognition of the relationship of
smoking and lung cancer. Prev. Med. 2:611-614.
(2) Cancer Facts and Figures. New York, American Cancer Society, 1976.
(3) See note (2) at S.
(4) See note (1) at 611.
(S) Muller, F.H.: Tabakmissbrauch und Lungencarcinom. Z Krebsforsch
49:57-85, 1939.
(6) Ochsner, A., DeBakey, M.: Carcinoma of the lung. Arch. Surg.
42:209-258, 1941.
(7) See note (6) at 210.
- {.
(8) 'See note (6).
(9) Shimkin, M.B.: Adventures in cancer epidemiology. Cancer Ries.
34:1525-1535, 1971, at 1527.
(10) See note (1) at 613.
(11) See note (1) at 613.
(12) Wynder, E.L., Graham, E.A.: Tobacco smoking as a possible
etiologic factor in bronchiogenic carcinoma.. J.A.M.A..143:
329-336, 1950.
(13) See note (12) at 336.
(14) Wynder, E.L., Graham, E.A., Croniger, H.B.: The experimental
production of carcinoma with cigarette tars. Cancer Res.
13:855-864, 1953.
(15) See note (1) at 614.
(16) Interview with Dr. Ernst Wynder, President of the American
Health Foundation, by Larry Agran of HCCP, April, 1976, New
York City.
(17) Interview with Dr. Lester Breslow, Dean of the UCLA School
Of Public Health, by Larry Agran of HCCP, November 25, 1975,
Los Angeles, Ca.
(18) Breslow, L., Hoaglin, L., Rasmussen, G., et al: Occupations
and cigarette smoking as factors in lung cancer. Am. J. Pub.
Health 44:171-181, 1954.
192

(19) See note (17).
(20) Hammond, E.C., Horn, D.: Smoking and death rates--report on
forty-four months of follow-up of 187,783 men. J.A.M.A. 166:
1159-1172 (Part I, Total Mortality), 1958: and J.A.M.A. 166:
1294-1308 (Part II, Death Rates by Cause), 1958.
(21) See note (20).
(22) Doll, R., Hill, A.B.: Lung cancer and other causes of death
in relation to smoking. Brit. b'ad. J. 1071-1081, November 10,
1956.
(23) Dorn, H. F. : Tobacco consumption and mortality from cancer and
other diseases. U.S. Pub. Health Rept. 74:581-593, July, 1959.
(24) See note (20).
(25) Burney, L.: Smoking and lung cancer: a statement of the Public
Health Service. J.A.M.A. 171:1829-1837,'November 28, 1959.
(26) See note (25).
(27) ~_Smok~i_nS_.a.~nd Health. Report of the Royal College of Physicians.
London, 1962.
~
(28) Smokin and Health: Re ort of the Adviso Committee to the
urgeon General of the Public Heal Se ryrnce. U.S. Dept. of
HEW, 1964.
(29) See note (28) at 182.
(30) See note (28) at 196.
(31) Trade Regulation Rule for the Prevention of Unfair or DeceRtive
A3vertisin`and -Labelin of Ci arettes in Relation to the Health
azar o Smo inQ. an Acco an in tatement o Basis an
_Puipo..se of Ru1e. Fe ral ra Commission, une , 1 4, at
8-24.
(32) See note (31).
(33) See note (31).
(34) Interview with Dr. Luther L. Terry, former Surgeon General of
the U.S.Public Health Service, by Myrna Morganstern of HCCP,
April, 1976, New York City.
(35) See note (34).
(36) See note (34).
193

(37) Statistical S lement to Federal Trade Commission Re ort to
ongress Pursuant to the Public Heal Cigarette mo ing Act,
1974, at 4.
(38) See note (31) at Appendix D.
(39) Health Warning Required on Cigarette Packs. Con pr~essional
Quarterly Almanac 344-351, 196S.
(40) 15 U.S.C. Sections 1331-1339 (Supp. 1966).
(41) See note (39).
(42) See note (39).
(43) Annual Report on Tobacco Statistics: 1973. U.S. Dept. of
Agriculturel, April, 1974, at 33.
(44) See note (39).
(45) Applicability of the Fairness Doctrine to Cigarette Advertising.
9 F.C.C. 2d 921, 1967.
(46) Banzhaf v. FCC,405 F.2d 1082, 1968.
(47) National Broadcasting Co., Inc., 16 F.C.C. 2d 947 , 1969.
(48) Whiteside, T.: Sellin Death: Ci arette Advertisi n and Public
Health. New Yor , veri t, 1971.
(49) See note (43).
(50) See note (43).
(51) See note (43) .
(52) See note (43).
(53) House and Senate Disagree on Cigarette Ad Bill. Congressional
Quarterly Almanac 883-890, 1969.
(54) Statistical S DD lement to Federal Trade Corrnnission Report to
Con ress Pursuant to e PublicHealtFi i arette mo n Act,
a le 7), 1973.
(55) See note (43).
(56) Annual Re ort on Tobacco Statistics: 1975. U.S. Dept. of
Agriculture, April, 1976, at 28.
(57) See note (56) .
194

(S8) See note (56).
(S9) Federal Trade Commission Rc ort to Congress Pursuant to the Public
ealt Ci~arette mo ing Act, ce er 31, 19710-11.
(60) See note (16).
(61) Tobacco in the National Economy.
1975. "(mi.meo) U.S. Dept. of Agriculture,
(62) See note (16).
r
. r,
195
