Tobacco Documents Online

FtrY`tDER. E$tiESr LUDWIG internix: b. H Weuphalia. Germany. :~ar. 30. 1922' S. r~lfred and Therese,fG wt'ume to US.. 193i, nasara8zed. 1943: @.d.. !i.L:. 1;_ • 3:.+~i.D.. Wuhin{:oa U.. St. Louis, 1950, ®S. La . SeQt'Sci., 'g45 D+tem. Georteto.a U Hoa(i. 1950 51: mcrn. stati 54emL Hay}~\~Y.C, 1951•3+. clia. uu. physiciaa dspt medirae, j93r-6 t, aaYe. turtdin~ phyticisaa. 1 9. ~-o9. coe~ ep~demicioyiat: 1969..:; die. yut„ mcdicine Jam.es Ewa+~ Hose., N.Y.C.. 1954-01. uit vis. ' tcian, ' 196i*-o9: ssaL 5(aaa.KetscMt.lrsc for Cancer ZESearch. 1§52•55. asam. 1955we?. atav. mers„ l7b0-69. ataiy rearnna6 1969•:O.~hpd sect ep1demiobgy div. eaviionmcaral uacsnacaaiu uat roL preventtve mcdtcute Skaa.(Getrstutt div. Carnell IY~~kd. ~olL 195i-56. auo. prof 1a9fi•g9: pros, med, dit ..;rx. Heilth.Fodnd. Y.Y.C.. 1949-: sd"y oroL paR !saa(th practices Co(umhiL 1969=: lecst..lept. owemwnty medicine Mt. Sinsi Sdt. Nedipae, City U. Y., tij(N70'-: sap~ed itr cufcet tessuch, ieackini `sa6 practiee r t e medicwe. Nlem. resaarch and deveL pouc+t s1v. cvm. tiat. Center for Hea(tif ServWa, Ruearch and J7erd.. 1'ftri=: mam, tult force ao ,ung caaicer, :obacco workias grem Yat. Cancer trtst„ 1967 - . epKk nyr>~3ea1 adr om. Thrrd Yat. Cancer Survey , 9hd-, , uulc force on atherosclerosis \rt. Heart.! Luns inu.. 19 ~4-: mam. White Hotne CoaL oa Cbtldren. 1970. Yat. Canccr P!aa Conf:.. 1971-. Mem. adv. jrou0 Am. Revufucioa Bicsntennul C.nnma, 1972-.>Rcdpsent Borden l;nderitrad. Resean:h awatd to medicias Wuointtea U.4 1950. `fem.Am. CAecaRasatchAsrtt., V.Y. Actd. Scia,. A.t1..i. Xt.. Pub. Heo.lua., 1ta,z P!anek Soc. (GermanY?. Editurid a.ix bd. CstkYt Rexarch.'1970-., editor•fn-thtcf Prevenrive Neilcrar. 1971-. Hon>e :00 Centtai Park 3 Ye. York C'uy ~(Y 10019 atso T.ia Ch(mneys Revo(uttarnry 2d Scaworooih V Y 10510 Odke 1370 Av o(,qmeri¢an New York Qity NY 10019 ~ In 1950, before he had conducted any mice experiments and be- fore anyone else claimed to have identified minute amounts of mouse- skin carcinogens in cigarette smoke, Ernest Wynder declared there were cancer-causing substances'in smoke and that he could find ways to remove or reduce them. Studying under pioneer lung cancer surgeon Evarts Graham in St. Louis, he reported more smoking among Dr. Graham's lung cancer patients than in noncancer patients in the same hospital and concluded in a 1950 published paper that "excessive and prolonged use of to- bacco, especially cigarettes, seems to be an important factor in the induction of bronchogenic carcinoma." He and his coauthors did not report on other findings from their study questionnaire on previous pulmonary disease, alcohol habits, residence, educational levels, cause of death of parents and siblings, or occupation and industrial exposures. Wynder's first reports on his mouseskin experiments claimed 44 percent incidence of skin tumors in half a mouse lifetime of severe painting -- shaving mouse backs once weekly and painting them thrice weekly -- a dosage of condensate later described as the equivalent of a man's smoking 100,000 cigarettes. Several years later Wynder concluded his skin-painting work after the chief at Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research announced that it wasn't necessary to demonstrate what the carcinogen in ciga- rette smoke was; the fact that mouseskin cancers were produced with whole "tar" was all the evidence necessary. TIMN 0114554 T11 <<Y85 Z99' i'3 C~y~ , G (.,

-2- Young Wynder, who had advanced meantime to head of Sloan- Kettering's epidemiology section, was telling groups that he would soon describe the carcinogen in smoke. But he found the substance elusive, and having failed to name the compound, shifted to other areas where no corroborative or negative results existed. In two papers published in 1957 he alleged that current cigarette filters do more harm than good but that a filter eliminating the unknown carcinogen was possible and that the nefarious substance in smoke came mainly from the wax cutin (covering) and rays of tobacco leaves. He gave no substantiating laboratory evidence. By 1960 Wynder had authored or coauthored more than 90 papers and made many speeches on the relationship between cigarettes and lung cancer. A tobacco industry observer wrote that year after Wynder had appeared in public debate against a scientist from the Council for Tobacco Research: He is an excellent showman. His manner is that of a dedi- cated, serious, all-knowing scientist, who has personally investigated "in my laboratory" many of the things under discussion. He establishes quick and continuing rapport with his audience through his light manner, his accent (including occasional misuse of words -- "your head will cough off,") and his easy manner of speaking... He repeatedly gives credence to what he is saying by the use of such phrases as "I know," "We know," "Science knows," "We have found," "I can assure you"...Throughout, he strikes the pose of an eminently reasonable man. Not an extremist, he assures you. He'll even work "hand-in-hand with the tobacco companies to produce a safer cigarette." He ex- presses bewilderment that this offer isn't accepted. He repeatedly assures you that he has no antagonism toward tobacco. Wynder had been involved in the 1950s in epidemiological work in cervical cancer, concluding that circumcision of all male babies would have "a significant influence on the lowering of the incidence of cancer of the cervix throughout those population groups following this practice." in the 1960s he shared his interest in tobacco re- search with work on air pollution, especially that from auto exhausts. Dietrich Hoffmann of Sloan-Kettering became a frequent collaborator in laboratory experiments with pollutants as well as epidemiological studies. Their papers on this and on isolated components of cigarette smoke were published throughout the decade in American and European journals. TIMN 0114555 T117486

-3- By 1967 Wynder had gained such a reputation in smoking and health research that he was asked to testify by the Senate Commerce consumer subcommittee in its investigation of the highly touted but soon forgotten Strickman filter. He told the committee he had been engaged for 15 years in the study of cancer, "including that of the upper alimentary and respiratory tracts," paying particular attention to "the possible relationship of tobacco to the development of cancer in man and the experimental animal." He said he and Hoffmann had re- duced carcinogenic hydrocarbons in cigarettes by adding nitrates to tobacco, a claim later brushed off by other tobacco researchers. Wynder was appointed that year to the new Tobacco Working Group of the National Cancer Institute's Lung Cancer Task Force and served until 1973. In late 1969 Wynder joined the American Health Foundation, which had recently changed its name from Environmental Health Foundation, just down the street from Sloan-Kettering. As president and medical director of the 4-year-old self-styled voluntary health association, Wynder became chief promoter and fund-raiser. AHF got a new identi- fying logo, launched a newsletter and kicked off membership drives in Washington and Los Angeles with cocktail parties and dinners hosted by socialites and industrialists. A year later Wynder, cohost with builder William Levitt and Mrs. Eleanor Naylor Dana, celebrated at a luncheon at New York's St. Regis AHF's new Preventive Medicine Labo- ratory. There was announcement shortly of an annual Eleanor Dana Award for outstanding contribution to preventive medicine and groundbreak- ing for a new $6 million research center, the Naylor Dana Institute of Disease Prevention in New York's Westchester County, with a $2.4 million building grant from the National Cancer Institute. Wynder, who at Sloan-Kettering had had strong grant support from the National Institutes of Health, brought more grants and contracts to AHF and by 1975 AHF was getting about $3 million yearly for pro- jects in cancer control and prevention, environmental carcinogenesis, digestive tract cancer and quit-smoking techniques. The foundation has had additional contracts with the Department of Agriculture, to look at tobacco growth stimulants, and with the Food and Drug Adminis- tration for a study of the effect of radar exposure on helicopter pilots, and grants for major heart and cancer studies from government and the American Cancer Society. AHF runs employee health maintenance programs at a prototype cen- ter in Manhattan for a number of large Northeast corporations, and it and Wynder have rated stories in national magazines like Harper's Bazaar, Town & Country and House and Garden with its educational and preventive medicine programs, such as health testing programs in schools, a two-day free clinic in Central Park in observance of National Blood Pressure Month, and a symposium "The Illusion of Immortality" with Dr. Michael DeBakey, Ashley Montague, William Sloan Coffin, Jr., and Edwin Newman. T117487 TIMN 0114556

• D . -4- Although AHF has put increased emphasis in recent years on gastric and colon cancer (Wynder told the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs in July 1976 that vegetarians have lower colon cancer rates), interest in cigarettes continues. Wyn- der occasionally is listed as author with Dietrich Hoffmann, now at AHF as environmental toxicology chief, on laboratory studies of cigarette components, and in May 1976 told the Third international Symposium on Detection and Prevention of Cancer: Smoking cessation clinics can be effective if properly conducted and include long-term maintenance. Also, the establishment of less harmful cigarettes has contributed towards reducing the risk of tobacco-related cancers. The tobacco and health problem and what to do about it remains a dilemma which must be broadly attacked. He was quoted in Munich in 1974 as believing that the cigarette plays a role in 40 percent of all cancers. He said researchers are clear that cancers of the esophagus, larynx, pancreas, bladder, kid- neys, colon and lungs are connected with smoking. September 1976 TIMN 0114557 T117488