A Vote for Acquittal

As study after study has established a correlation between prolonged cigarette smoking and lung cancer, nobody has been more concerned, or more silent, than U.S. cigarette makers. Last week, following news that the tars from cigarette smoke have now been proved to cause cancer in mice (TIME, Nov. 30), one of the industry's leaders broke silence. To Paul M. Hahn, president of the American Tobacco Co. (Lucky Strikes), the case against cigarettes is still unproved. Said he:

"No one has yet proved that lung cancer in any human being is directly traceable to tobacco or to its products in any form . . . There are a few scientists who report that by using a high concentration of cigarette smoke--entirely different from the smoke which a person draws from a cigarette--and painting it on the skins of mice, they have produced skin cancers on the mice. On the other hand, there are many more scientists of high repute who have made similar experiments and have reported that no cancers were produced. Moreover, all scientists agree that there is no known relation between skin cancers on mice and lung cancers in humans . . ."

Tobaccoman Hahn revealed that his company has been quietly supporting research of its own "in this field, within its own laboratory and in independent institutions.* It is our policy . . . to extend cooperation to projects where we believe that the researchers are approaching and will approach the subject without prejudice and without preconceived opinions . . . We are confident that long-range, impartial investigation . . . will confirm the view that neither tobacco nor its products contributes to the incidence of lung cancer."

* E.g., by giving $250,000 to the Damon Runyon Memorial Cancer Fund, which supports New York University's Institute of Industrial Medicine, which is trying to find the cancer-causing factor in cigarette tar.

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