EUGENE REGISTER-GUARD, Sunday, Oct. 21, 1962 Page 3D
Does Tobacco Smoke Kill, Cripple or Just Pacify?
Panel of Experts Will Launch Exhaustive
Study
EDITOR'S NOTE Three
years ago the U. S. Public
Health Service advised Amer
icans that the surest way to
avoid lung cancer was to quit
smoking. This added new fuel
to an already-raging tobacco
vs.i cancer controversy. The
Surgeon General has now
decided to appoint a panel of
eminent scientists to deter
mine whether the original
statement should be real
firmed, modified, or com
pletely wilhdraum. Vital
health and economic issues
hinge on the outcome.
By DAVID D. LEWIS
Of the United Pres. International
WASHINGTON The chief
government guardian of na
tional health is about to jump
into one of the medical profes
sion's long unsettled debates
the controversy over whether
tobacco smoke kills, cripples or
just pacifies humans.
Surgeon General Luther L.
Terry of the U. S. Public Health
Service (PHS) is expected to
name very soon an expert panel
to make a full investigation of
all previous data concerning the
relationship of smoking to
health problems, including
whether it causes lung cancer.
He has said the group also
will look at other possible
Parents Sue
Drug Firm
NEW YORK WV-The Long
Island parents of twins have
begun a $2.2-million law suit
against a German pharmaceuti
cal firm, claiming their chil
dren were born deformed be
cause the mother took some of
the sedative drug thalidomide
while pregnant.
Tuck Harvey, 26, claimed in
an affidavit that his son Noren
was born with defective, de
formed and shortened arms and
his daughter Bivenne, suffered
internal deformities and a mal
formed thumb.
The husband said his wife
used the drug after it was pre
scribed by her physician to help
overcome insomnia while preg
nant. The twins were born at North
Shore Hospital, Manhasset, N.
Y., May 18, 1961.
health hazards such as automo
bile exhaust, industrial smog
and other air pollutants.
When the new findings are
analyzed, this panel, or a new
one, will make recommenda
tions. Then it will be up to
Doctor Terry to decide what
action, if any, is warranted.
Unbiased Panel
The Surgeon General himself
will head the study which is
being financed by the federal
government. The other 11 panel
members will represent the
whole spectrum of the scientific
fields involved.
Billed as "unbiased," the
panel will be selected from
among more than 150 eminent
scientists. By mid-October, 10
of the 11 had been chosen, al
though it had been expected
the group would be at work on
the initial six-month phase a
month earlier.
One FHS official helping to
coordinate the selections says
"These people had to be like
Caesar's wife pure beyond
doubt in their lack of bias or
any prejudiced notions of the
relation of smoking to health.
At least, if they had such no
tions, they must have kept them
quiet."
Before invitations to serve on
the panel were issued, interest
ed parties were allowed to
"veto" any candidate for "any
reason whatever," the official
said.
Opinions Gathered
Opinions of candidate qualifi
cations were solicited from the
Tobacco Institute, Inc.; Ameri
can Cancer Society, American
Heart Assn., American Medical
Assn., American College of
Chest Surgeons, the National
Tuberculosis Assn., the Food
and Drug Administration, the
Federal Trade Commission, and
President Kennedy's Office of
Science and Technology.
First phase of the study will
investigate "the nature and
magnitude of the health haz
ard." It will be a purely scien
tific review of available data
Liquor Sales Gain
OLYMPIA (UPD The State
Liquor Control Board reports
that gross liquor sales totaled
$7,797,097 last month compared
with $7,692,166 during Septem
ber, 1961.
and probably will include pub
lic hearings. From this will De
distilled a philosophy on the
smoking health problem attest
ed to by the collective profes
sional reputation of the ex
perts. .
The second phase perhaps
carried out by a different group
and likely to include represen
tatives of the President's com
mittee, the FDA and FTC will
seek to chart a course for the
government, the public, the to
bacco industry and the medical
profession.
The problem is fraught with
political, economic and social
implications, as well as its obvi
ous implications to the nation's
health. Such statistics as these
indicate the breadth of the is
sue: There are an estimated 70
million to 100 million tobacco
users in the United States. Some
experts assert that 75 per cent
of all American men and 50 per
cent of the women are regular
smokers at some time in their
lives.
The tobacco industry has
an estimated annual income of
more than $7.5 billion and is a
heavy advertiser in the various
media of communications.
Federal and state income
from tobacco taxes runs about
S3 billion a year.
The economy of six states
which are top tobacco producers
is materially affected by the in
dustry. These are Georgia Ken
tucky, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Tennessee and Virgin
ia. Fifteen other states are in
volved as lesser producers.
17 million Americans de
pend on tobacco for all or part
of their livelihood, including
800,000 farm families in the 21
producing states.
Tobacco is the nation's
fourth largest agricultural crop.
The debate over the relative
danger or benefit of tobacco to
mankind has been raging for
more than 400 years, from the
time smoking was introduced to
Western civilization by Spanish
explorers of America in the
early 1500s.
In a report on smoking in re
lation to cancer and other dis
eases published last March, the
British Royal College of Physi
cians (RCP) said tobacco almost
from the beginning became both
very popular and very contro
versial.
Last month, the U. S. Agri
culture Department reported
cigarette sales rose 2 per cent
in 1962 to an all-time high after
a steady rise of 3 or 4 per cent
from 1955-1961. The department
estimated 1962 production at
538 billion cigarettes, up 11 bil
lion, and 7.2 billion cigars, up
about 140 million.
Other Production Off
Other tobacco production In
the United States fell oif, how
ever, it said. Pipe tobacco pro
duction dropped 3 million
pounds to 71 million pounds;
chewing tobacco fell to a new
low of 64.5 million pounds,
down about one per cent; and
snuff production hit a 47-ycar
low at about . 32.8 million
pounds, down 3 per cent.
Agriculture officials hedged
on whether tobacco production
would increase again next year.
They said a rise seemed like
ly in 1963 but that the revival
of the debate over the impact of
smoking on health might affect
the market.
Long as the controversy has
been underway it has not been
until fairly recent years that
the U. S. government has
stepped in as a debater.
Five years ago, then Surgeon
General Leroy E. Burney said
"The Public Health Service feels
the weight of the evidence is in
creasingly pointing in one di
rection: That excessive smoking
is one of the causative factors
in lung cancer."
Two years later, In a special
report on the smoking-health
situation in November, 1959,
Burney issued a series of state
ments which the PHS believed
"justified by studies to date."
These 1959 statements were:
The weight of evidence at
present implicates smoking as
the principal etiological factor
in the increased incidence of
lung cancer. ,
Cigarette smoking particu
larly is associated with an in
creased chance of developing
lung cancer.
. Stopping cigarette smoking
even after long exposure is
beneficial.
No method of treating to
bacco or filtering the smoke has
been demonstrated to be effec
tive in materially reducing or
eliminating the hazard of lung
I cancer.
The non-smoker has a low
er incidence of lung cancer
than the smoker in all controlled
studies, whether analyzed in
terms of rural areas, urban
regions, industrial occupations
or sex. .
Persons who have never
smoked at all (cigarettes, cigars
or pipe) have the best chanee of
escaping lung cancer.
Unless the use of tobacco
can be made safe, the individual
person's risk of lung cancer
can best be reduced by the
elimination of smoking.
Dr. James Hundley, assistant
surgeon general for plans, said
recently that the PHS stood by
the 1959 statements and would
do so until new findings are de
veloped. Last April, however, a PHS
official said, Surgeon General
Terry gave former Health, Ed
ucation arid Welfare Secretary
Abraham A. Ribicoff a re
evaluation of-the Burney report.
The official said this re-evaluation
never made public was
based on new evidence, includ
ing the British Royal College re
port, the decision of Denmark
and Italy to ban cigarette ad
vertisements, and other reports
by scientists.
Sen. Maurine Neuberger, D
Ore., Sen. Frank E. . Moss, D
Utah, and a number of co-sponsors
have introduced a bill
which would create a presiden
tial commission to do generally
the same job as the Surgeon
General's panel is intended to
accomplish.
Numerous studies in recent
years have added or detracted
from the weight of evidence
supporting a smoking - cancer
link or a relationship to other
disorders, including heart dis
ease and respiratory ailments.
Among the most recent pro
nouncements pro and con were
these:
Dr. Warren H. Cole, for
mer president of the American
Cancer Society, said on Sept.
23 at Chicago that 24 studies
made since 1950 found "there is
a very sharp relationship be
tween cigarette smoking and
cancer of the lungs." He pre
dicted most lung cancer would
be eliminated "within 20 years"
if people stopped smoking cig
arettes. The Tobacco Institue re
plied from New York with a
statement that "Repetition does
not alter the fact that medical
science does not know the cause
, . . of lung cancer. If Doctor
Colo knows what will happen in
the field of cancer 20 years
from now, he apparently has
information not generally avail
able." .
A group of researchers
wrote in the Journal of the
American Medical Association
on Sept. 24 that filtered cig
arette smoke yielded only one-
REFINISH YOUR
FIRESCREEN MESH
SPRAY )00 per
BRASS JL con
EUGENE
third the amount of tar in stan
dard cigarette smoke but still
enough to cause cancer in some
mice. They said each of six
brands they studied induced
tumors in the mice and some of
the Illinois became cancerous.
The Tobacco Industry Re
search Committee (TIRO chair
man, T. V. Hartnctt, replied to
the filter-tip report that "Scien
tists advise us it is important
to note that cancers have been
produced in laboratory animals
with a number of harmless,
everyday substances, including
glucose, eggs and medicinal skin
creams. It is apparent that ani
mal skin painting is not di
rectly relevant to the problem
of human cancer, particularly
lung cancer."
Against this backdrop of con
troversy, the carefully chosen j
scientific panel, guided by the '
nation's chict health officer
the Surgeon General will i
search for new insight into the i
age-old tobacco-health debate. I
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