SMOKING AND HEALTH
STATEME-NT BY A GROUP OF LEADING TOBACCO
MANL-FA=RERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
The evidence on the possible relationship of lung
cancer and smoking is
conflicting and very ' I te; much more research is
necessary before firm
conclusions can be dr "comm, industry has
consistently favoured a scientific and
objective approach to this question. Quite apart
from our own chemical research
into the constituents of tobacco and tobacco smoke
we have assisted, and will continue
to assist, research in evt--v way we can; and we
make this statement with a full sense
of our duty to the public.
The suggestion that smoking may* be a contributory
cause of lung cancer
continues to be based mainly on certain
statistical enquiries. Statistics by
stitute proof of a cause and effect relationship.
themselves, however, can never cons
We have closely followed every phase of
statistical and medical research on this
subject in this country, in the U.S.A. and
elsewhere; and we think it right at this
tim-C to emphasise that:
(a) Only a small proportion ofsmokers contract the
disease; and the disease
also occurs amongst non-smokers.
(b) Tlie incidence of the disease. per head of the
population appears to
be much greater in towns than in rural areas; but
there is relatively
little difference in the amounts smoked by town
and country dwellers
respectively.
(c) 11c variations in the incidence of the disease
in different countries appear
to bear little relation to the variations in
tobacco consumption in those
countries.
(d) Ile British Empire Cancer Campaign has
reported that experiments in
a number of research institutions to test whether
tobacco smoke produces
cancer in certain animals have given negative
results. Experiments have
also been carried out at Yale University School of
Medicine for 10 years
with tobacco tar and living tissue, including
human lung tissue trans-
planted into animals, and have produced no
evidence ofcancer formation.
Tobacco is a great boon to many millions ofpcople
in this country and through-
out the world; the benefits, psychological and
physiological, it may confer are
not yet fully understood and might well be a
subject of scientific investigation.
Obviously, excessive smoking may be harmful in
certain cases. Excess---whether it
be of eating, drinking or smoking--cannot be good
for anyone. But what is excessive
.o one pers n is not ncc=arily excessive to
others. Moreover, the average amount
.Smoked in this country is by no means high; after
allowing for the increase in
population, the consumption of tobacco here has
shown ordy a small increase
compared with pre-war and is well below the
consumption per head in a number
of other countries.
In 1954 we placed a fund of C250,000 at the
disposal of the Medical Research
Council in order to aid research into the cause or
causes of lung cancer. It is
as clear today as it was then that a great deal of
further scientific and medical
evidenre is needed before the true causes of the
disease can be established.
ARDATH TOBACCO Co. LTD.
BprrisH-AmEmcAN TOBACCO Co. LTD.
CAR.RERAs LTD.
GALLAHEit LTD.
IMPERIAL T013ACCO CO. (of Great Britain and
Ireland), LTD.
GODFREY PHILLips LTD.
7 th Mav, 1956. J. Wix & Som LTD.
CD
BATCo document for Province of British Columbia 3
November 1999