Daily Doc: BAT: Blaming the smoker
Daily Doc: Blaming the smoker
Title: Research by the Tobacco Research Council
BAT
Bates #: 100467534/7546
July 20, 2000
This British American Tobacco Company document explores several working hypotheses that were under consideration by the Tobacco Research Council (TRC), an industry group that charged itself with discovering "what really causes cancer." Naturally, one of the hypotheses of the industry was that the smoker causes his own cancer due to his/her genetic makeup. If they could only find out who was predisposed to getting cancer, and then persuade these people not to smoke, then --voila'!--they could completely eliminate the statistical association between smoking and lung cancer!
This document also gives us an example of which "eminent research workers" the members of the TRC held in high esteem. Here from page seven of this document is a passage that highlights a revelation from one of the TRC's respected paragons of medical science :
"One of the most eminent research workers in the field of nicotine and cardiovascular disease, Dr. Richard Bing of Detroit, has said, 'I think that it is all right for a healthy man to smoke as far as the heart is concerned because, just like bicycling, it increases coronary flow -- and it is a lot easier because one can do it lying down.'"
CITATION
Title: Research by the Tobacco Research Council
Type of Document: Report
Author: Unknown; (organizational
Author Tobacco Research Council) Recipient: N/A
Company: British American Tobacco Company
Date: N/A
Site: British Columbia's Guildford document site http://www.hlth.gov.bc.ca/guildford/index.html
Page Count 13
Bates No. 100467534/7546
URL: http://www.hlth.gov.bc.ca/guildford/pdf/072/00007280.pdf
Litigation Usage: N/A (apparently unused so far)
Found Using Search Criteria: This was a random find.
Thanks to: Stan Shatenstein of Canada for notifying advocates about this new site.
QUOTES
Why the industry must adopt a Working Hypothesis
It is doubtless obvious that all research must have a clearly defined objective; other wise it is simply aimless. It is therefore useful to use a "working hypothesis" because it forces you to formulate in a specific way the precise extent of existing knowledge and to decide the assumptions on which you are going to carry out research....
...Only a minority of even heavy cigarette smokers develop lung cancer. If it was possible to identify in advance all people who were likely to develop lung cancer at some future date and to persuade them to stop smoking, the statistical association between smoking and lung cancer would eventually disappear. All other cigarette smokers could then smoke without fear of developing lung cancer. What an achievement that would be. At present, because some people should not smoke, we have a propaganda policy in Ministries of Health throughout the world that is based on what Winston Churchill would doubtless have described as "equality of misery."...
...Although heavy cigarette smoking is undoubtedly found more often in those who develop coronary heart disease than in those who don't, this does not necessarily mean that smoking contributes to the disease. One of the most eminent research workers in the field of nicotine and cardiovascular disease, Dr. Richard Bing of Detroit, has said, "I think that it is all right for a healthy man to smoke as far as the heart is concerned because, just like bicycling, it increases coronary flow -- and it is a lot easier because one can do it lying down."
July 22, 2000
Update: Dr. Fred Grannis of the City of Hope Hospital in Duarte, California knows Dr. Richard Bing, who was quoted in the Tobacco Research Council document posted here yesterday. Dr. Bing, whom the TRC quoted as saying it is all right for a healthy man to smoke as far as the heart is concerned "because, just like bicycling, it increases coronary flow -- and it is a lot easier because one can do it lying down," now works in Pasadena, California.
Says Dr. Grannis of Dr. Bing, "He is a fascinating man. He has been at the forefront of cardiac medicine since the 1940s (the Taussig-Bing congenital heart defect) and still runs an active cardiac research laboratory at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena CA. I am sure that he would be interested in seeing how the tobacco industry has used his (probably jocular ) statement."
Indeed, Dr. Grannis phoned Dr. Bing and spoke with him about the quote. Dr. Grannis reports that the quote was taken out of context, and further says, "Dr. Bing has certainly changed his position and has shown in his own research lab that smoking is detrimental to persons with coronary artery disease."
Thank you for the update, Dr. Grannis.
This service is brought to you by the American Lung Association of Colorado ( http://www.alacolo.org/) and Smokescreen ( http://www.smokescreen.org)
To join Doc-Alert, go to http://tobaccodocuments.org/, scroll down to the bottom of the page, enter your email address in the box marked "Daily Document Newsletter," and click *subscribe.*
Visit the Daily Document Archives at http://www.smokescreen.org/list/viewmsgs.cfm?id=66, or, for quick and easy at-a-glance viewing, try Gene Borio's great new Daily Document Archive at http://www.tobacco.org/Documents/dd/dd.html
Anne Landman, Regional Program Coordinator
American Lung Association of Colorado, West Region Office
Grand Junction, CO
(970) 245-2120
afoxland@gj.net
***********************
Go To: Tobacco BBS HomePage / Resources Page / Health Page / Documents Page / Culture Page / Activism Page
***********************
END OF DOCUMENT