Dates & Filters

In medicine's continuing war against cigarettes as the principal cause of lung cancer, Surgeon General Leroy Burney of the U.S. Public Health Service was back in the ring last week, punching hard in another round. In the A.M.A. Journal, Dr. Burney reiterated that 1) all smokers have a higher death rate from lung cancer than nonsmokers, 2) heavy and long-continued cigarette smoking goes with the highest lung-cancer death rate, and 3) it helps somewhat to quit smoking, even after years of indulgence. But this time Dr. Burney went farther, added: "No method of treating tobacco or filtering the smoke has been demonstrated to be effective in materially reducing or eliminating the hazard of lung cancer."

Dr. Burney's article did not reach the A.M.A.'s Chicago office until Nov. 2. This was well after the Reader's Digest had hit the stands with its November issue showing (from tests by a reputable private laboratory) that several brands of filtered cigarettes, marketed since midsummer, filter the tars and nicotine to an unprecedented low. PHS filter tests, on which Dr. Burney relied, were completed in the spring. For all his forthrightness, Dr. Burney was leading with a glass chin because his information was out of date.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.