V,'ESTMINSTER HOUSE 7 MILLBANK LONDON 3JE 01-22-2
'222
RH/JC. 12th January, 1979.
TO ALL NO. I Is OF ASSOCIATED COMPANIES
U.S. SURGEON GF-NLMkL IS REPORT ON
SMOKING & HEALTH
11 th Januarv. 1979
The attached is a summary of the points made in
the
Press Conference announcing the Surgeon General Is
Report.
No full copies of the Report are available yet.
It is suggested that if Companies are challenged
by
the media at local level they should emphasise
they have not
seen a copy of the Report and, accordingly, it
would be in-
appropriate for them to comment, other than to say
that the
Surgeon General's Report seems not to have
produced any
new evidence and that the questions surrounding
smoking
are still unresolved.
(R. HADDON)
Enclosures:
cc: Directors' Reading File
TDB Reading File C)IJ
Heads of Departments C:)
BATCo document for Province of BritiSh Columbia 2
November 1999


Synopsis of the Press Conference concerning the
new Surgeon
General's Report on Smokinq and Health
This Report is based on press reports of the Press
Conference
held today (January 111 1979) in Washington by
Secretary of
Health, Education and Welfare Joseph CaUfano and
Surgeon
General Julius Richmond. The Surgeon General
called his
new 1, 200 page Report a "Review and Reappraisal"
of research
accumulated over the past 15 years. It is based on
no specific
new research and contained no startling new
conclusions. However,
the SurgeonGeneral stated that the Report presents
"overwhelming"
evidence that smoking causes death and disease.
Secretary Califano said, '11his document reveals,
with dramatic
clarity, that smoking is even more dangerous -
indeed, far more
dangerous - than was supposed in 1964". He
contends that the
Report "demolishes" claims by cigarette
manufacturers that there
is no proven link between smoking and cancer and
chronic diseases.
The Dollars 250,000 Report contains 13 chapters on
biomedical
research, five on behavioral research and four on
smoking educat-
ion. It lists 50 authors and nearly 100 scientists
and experts in
and out of Government who wrote or reviewed the
Report. Much
of the material incorporated in the new Report was
contained in 10
earlier Reports to Congress.
Among the findings re-emphasized in the latest
Report:
- The risk of heart attack is increased tenfold in
women
smokers who use Estrogen-containing oral
contraceptives.
- Smoking during pregnancy has a significant
adverse
effect upon the well-being of the fetus and the
health
of the newborn baby.
- Smokers, male and female, die from a variety of
ailments
at a rate of two-thirds higher than nonsmokers.
- Women are dying from lung cancer at a rate three
times
as high as in 1964.
- Coronary heart disease from smoking causes more
premature deaths than lung cancer and other lung
diseases.
- Smokers of low "tar" and nicotine cigarettes run
lower risks of lung cancer and coronary heart
disease.
- Ycungsters who smoke may suffer immediate harm
BATCO document for Province of BritiSh Columbia 2
November 1999


in the form of lung damage and respiratory
problems.
90 percent of the people who smoke "have either
tried to quit smoking or probably would quit, if
only they could find an effective way to do so".
New research suggests that individuals who try to
quit cigarette smoking have been more successful
in "rapid and complete cessation" rather than in a
gradual reduction of the amount smoked.
There is no current "unequivocal evidence" of the
existence of safe levels of tar and nicotine.
During a Press Conference yesterday in Washington,
Tobacco
Institute officials commented on the Report (which
at that time
they had not seen). Some of the points made
include:
- The new Report is more "rehash than research.
Science
doesn't time its findings".
- Turning a significant health question into a
publicity
stunt is an insult to serious science.
- It has never been shown that tobacco smoke
causes
disease in nonsmokers.
- Studies of smoking women and children have
produced
inconsistent findings making it impossible to draw
convincing conclusions.
- Studies of the effects of smoking on pregnant
women
and their unborn children have proved to be incon-
sistent.
- Charges regarding smoking and lung cancer must
seriously be questioned.
- The almost exclusive focus on individual smoking
habits in the study of cancer may have delayed
needed
research into occupational and environmental
causes.
- Many scientists are becoming concerned that the
pre-
occupation with smoking may be both unfounded and
dangerous - unfounded because the evidence on many
critical points is conflicting, dangerous because
this
preoccupation diverts attention from other
suspected
hazards.
1 Ith Januarv. 1979.
cr%
BATCo document for Province of BritiSh Columbia 2
November 1999