Jump to:

RJ Reynolds

Horton V. American Tobacco Co. Trial Testimony of Charles Lemaistre.

Date: 12 Jan 1988
Length: 89 pages
507800297-507800385
Jump To Images
snapshot_rjr 507800297-507800385

Fields

Site
Jones Day
Author
Lemaistre, C.
Date Loaded
27 Feb 1998
Box
Rjr4094
Request
Minnesota
Letter
Request
19970311
Type
FORMAL LEGAL DOCUMENT
TESTIMONY
UCSF Legacy ID
nqn14d00

Document Images

Text Control

Highlight Text:

OCR Text Alignment:

Image Control

Image Rotation:

Image Size:

Page 11: nqn14d00 Log in for more options!
1020 1 2 is needed, please contact me." Dr. Johnny B. Bills. 3 i will therefore -- I have released Mr. 4 Russell. I will therefore replace him by alternate 5 number 1, Mrs. Thomas B. Gantt. 6 MR. D. DAVIS: No objection. 7 THE COURT: Mr. Clerk, please file that 8 and put it in the Court file. 9 MR. UPSHAW: Judge, we want to put into 10 the record, before the jury comes back in, as the 11 Court knows we have heretofore challenged Ms. Gantt 12 and we do object to this change. 13 THE COURT: The objection is overruled. 14 You may bring the jury in. 15 Bring your next witness up. 16 MR. D. DAVIS: Do you want me to call him 17 before they come in. 18 THE COURT: Yes. 19 MR. D. DAVIS: Your Honor, we call at 20 this time Dr. Charles LeMaistre. 21 C H A_H L E S L e M A I S T R E, called as a 22 witness, having been first duly sworn by the 23 Court, was examined and testified as follows: 24 MR. D. DAVIS: We are right now, aren't 25 we, on our jury count. ESQUIRE REPORTING COMPANY INC.
Page 12: nqn14d00 Log in for more options!
1039 1 2 meant that whatever we were suspecting as a cause, 3 had to proceed or be in a timely fashion to the 4 occurrence of that disease, and this is important in 5 this particular instance because, for a very long 6 period of time, it was not appreciated how long it 7 took for carcinoma of the lung to development the 8 fact that it took more than a decade and could take 9 as long as a decade and a half to two decades of for 10 the maximum production of lung cancer after a heavy 11 smoking of cigarettes misled a lot of people back in 12 the 1940s and 1950s but that association on a 13 temporal relationship, a time base, time and time 14 again was established and has been reaffirmed 15 consistently. 16 And then the last one, of course, would 17 have to deal with what is called coherence of the 18 association, and basically this means that there are 19 no significant findings that would overturn the 20 association and none were found in any of the areas 21 which 4ee concluded in the chapters of this book. 22 Q. Dr. LeMaistre, for how many months did 23 the work of the advisory committee to the Surgeon 24 General continue? 25 A. As I recall, it was about a year and a ESQUIRE REPORTING COMPANY INC.
Page 13: nqn14d00 Log in for more options!
1041 1 2 representatives of the tobacco industry during the 3 course of the preparation of this report? 4 A. No, sir, we did not. 5 Q. Did the committee allow anyone other than 6 committee members to sit in on the key decisions that 7 were made? 8 A. No, sir. 9 Q. Was it restricted to members of the 10 committee? 11 A. On the decision making process? 12 Q. Yes, sir. 13 A. Yes. The staff to the committee was in 14 the room, but they were not involved in the decision 15 making process. 16 Q. Did the committee receive for 17 consideration information supplied by the Tobacco 18 Institute? 19 A. The request was made, and I happened to 20 have made the request specifically to the chairman at 21 one time to invite testimony from the tobacco 22 industries and from the Tobacco Institute. 23 It is my understanding that we did not 24 get that particular form of cooperates, if you will, 25 and that they chose, I believe, to submit information ESQUIRE REPORTING COMPANY INC.
Page 14: nqn14d00 Log in for more options!
1049 1 2 by the medical profession or the scientific body that 3 would disprove that relationship. 4 Q. Dr. LeMaistre, yesterday before you were 5 here Dr. La Salle Leffall was on the witness stand, 6 and I want to show you, sir, a book which he was 7 handed entitled, Encyclopedia America. 8 MR. UPSHAW: Americana. Q. Encyclopedia Americana, and I want to 10 refer you, Doctor, if you would take the book, I want 11 to refer you to page 70. Would you turn to page 70 12 of that book, please. 13 A. Yes, sir, I have it. 14 Q. Were you the original author of that 15 chapter? 16 A. Yes, sir. 17 Q. In approximately what year did you submit 18 that to the Encyclopedia Americana? 19 A. The original copy. 20 Q. The original copy? 21 -A. Best recollection I have is in the late 22 1970s. 23 Q. Doctor, was this prior to the time that 24 adenocarcinoma had been causally linked to smoking? 25 A. At the time of the original article, ESQUIRE REPORTING COMPANY INC.
Page 15: nqn14d00 Log in for more options!
1038 1 2 once. It occurred repeatedly in cigarette smokers 3 and that lung cancer appeared as a consequence in 4 those particular people whether a direct causal 5 relationship at that time was known but nonetheless, 6 the repetitive appearance or consistency of it was 7 one thing that we used to measure. 8 Q. What were some of the others, Dr. 9 LeMaistre? 10 A. The strength of the association and it 11 comes out in this particular instance, it was between 12 10 and 12 times, and epidemiologic terms, that is 13 very strong. That is a multiple of 10 to 12 times 14 greater risk for the smoker than the nonsmoker. 15 Then the next one would be the 16 specificity, could the carcinoma, for instance, in 17 question be reproduced by the agent at the same 18 site? In other words, if it was agent X, did it 19 produce a carcinoma here one time and a carcinoma 20 there the next. 21 - The way cigarette smoking, we saw 22 reproducible carcinomas in specific areas, lung 23 cancer and bladder cancer and esophageal cancer and 24 throat cancer, time and time again the evidence 25 showed that. Then the temporal relationship, that ESQUIRE REPORTING COMPANY INC.
Page 16: nqn14d00 Log in for more options!
1046 1 2 Q. Does this show in the forward here that 3 the fact that you were one of the members of that 4 committee? 5 A. It does show that I served two years in 6 that capacity. 7 Q. What were those years? 8 A. 1964 to 1966. 9 Q. For how many years did this study 10 continue? 11 A. It is my impression that the study 12 continued at least through 1969, at least I am 13 familiar with a report from this group of which I was 14 no longer a member that confirmed all of the 1964 15 Surgeon General's findings. 16 Q. I wanted to ask you, sir, when this was 17 published, did it in any way alter any of the 18 conclusions that had been reached by the advisory 19 committee to the Surgeon General? 20 A. No, sir. I am not aware of any 21 signif-icant conclusions or any others that it 22 23 24 25 altered. Q. Did it in any way alter the conclusion that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer? Ln m A. No, sir. `' 00 m m w N ESQUIRE REPORTING COMPANY INC. ~
Page 17: nqn14d00 Log in for more options!
1050 1 2 adenocarcinoma was still predominantly confined to 3 women and we were not certain of the relationship on 4 a causal base at that time. 5 I will call to your attention that one of 6 the confusing factors was that women had taken up 7 cigarette smoking a number of years after men 8 unfortunately engaged in the experiment. 9 As a consequence, the evidence was not 10 unshakeable and we did refer to it in this, but I 11 don't think we concluded any direct association. 12 Q. Doctor, I want you to turn to page 72? 13 A. All right, sir. 14 Q. I will ask you to look over in the area 15 that has been highlighted, and I will ask you, sir, 16 when was that document resubmitted to the 17 encyclopedia for publication? 18 A. The most recent? 19 Q. Yes. 20 A. This was submitted in late 1986, and was 21 published, as I recall, in 19 -- mid-1987, or so. '1% 44 Q. Was there any error called to the 23 attention of*the Encyclopedia Americana after that 24 book was published? 25 A. Yes, there was. ESQUIRE REPORTING COMPANY INC.
Page 18: nqn14d00 Log in for more options!
1057 1 2 compilation. 3 MR. UPSHAW: So stipulated. 4 Q. Doctor, I want to ask you, is there any 5 carcinogen that The American Tobacco Company has 6 added to non-filtered Pall Mall cigarettes during 7 this period of time? 8 A. When I looked at this list I spotted two 9 substances that I wanted to 10 MR. BLACKMON: Your Honor, may we 11 approach the bench, please? 12 THE COURT: Yes. 13 MR. BLACKMON: This testimony before -- 14 here it is. This is not -- 15 MR. WILLIAMS: He was not qualified -- 16 MR. D. DAVIS: He is stating his basis 17 why this cigarette causes lung cancer and this is 18 included in his basis. You had every right to 19 question him about it and you didn't. You didn't ask 20 him for it. This man is entitled. 21 - MR. BLACKMON: We relied on this. 22 THE COURT: What is this? The answer to 23 the 26-B? 24 MR. D. DAVIS: That they took a whole 25 day's deposition. ESQUIRE REPORTING COMPANY INC.
Page 19: nqn14d00 Log in for more options!
1027 1 2 in? 3 A. I really am knot certain at the moment. 4 I looked at them just as I was sitting there and 5 there are two pages full of them in my curriculum 6 vitae which I have here, if you wish, but I can't 7 give you an accurate count. Let's say more than 20. 8 Q. Do you hold membership in the American 9 Medical Association? 10 A. Yes, sir, I do. 11 Q. How about the Georgia Trudeau Society? 12 A. I am no longer active in the Georgia 13 Trudeau Society. I still have my license to practice 14 in Georgia and Texas and am a member of the Texas 15 Medical Association. 16 Q. Doctor, in the AMA, is there a committee 17 known as the educational research foundation 18 committee on research on tobacco and health? 19 A. There was, yes, sir. 20 Q. Did you serve as a member of that 21 committee for a period of time? 22 A. Yes. As I recall, beginning in 1966 or 23 1967, I was requested to join that committee and 24 served for a two year period on that committee. 25 Q. Have you also been a member of the ESQUIRE REPORTING COMPANY INC.
Page 20: nqn14d00 Log in for more options!
1048 1 2 smoke from other people, I would cite their report in 3 the early 1980s showing that adenocarcinoma had risen 4 to great heights and was the most prevalent one and 5 that was an incremental decision and only ending in 6 the 1980s were we able to agree that that information 7 was final and very conclusive from a number of 8 scientific publications that are referred to as it 9 came along in each of these reports. 10 But the important thing, I think, in 11 answering your question is that I know of nothing 12 that any of those reports have overturned of major 13 significance in the original Surgeon General's 14 report. 15 Q. Doctor, are you aware of any 16 authoritative scientific study that has been 17 conducted in the past 15 or 20 years that has 18 established that cigarette smoking does not cause 19 lung cancer? 20 A. I would have to indicate that my answer 21 would be based upon, I know of no publication that 22 has scientific credibility, that has done so. I know 23 of many authoritarian statements to the contrary, but 24 I do not think they offer proof that is accepted, so 25 the answer is, I know of none that have been accepted ESQUIRE REPORTING COMPANY INC.

Text Control

Highlight Text:

OCR Text Alignment:

Image Control

Image Rotation:

Image Size: