New Warning on Smoking

Since 1964, various Government reports have linked cigarette smoking to lung cancer, emphysema and other respiratory ailments. Last week U.S. Surgeon General Jesse Steinfeld fired yet another salvo: a 488-page report to Congress showing, among other things, that smokers who rely on pipes and cigars are not as safe as they imagine. According to the report, which details hundreds of studies on millions of smokers and nonsmokers, cigarette smokers are at least 20 times as likely to die of lung cancer as nonsmokers, and six to ten times as likely to die of cancer of the larynx. They are also more susceptible to peptic ulcers, the delivery of stillborn babies and cancer of the urinary tract.

In addition, the report cited experimental evidence that cigarette smoking causes a relative deprivation of oxygen in the heart muscle. It also contributes to circulatory problems by constricting arteries. The Surgeon General's conclusion: "Cigarette smoking is a significant factor in the development of coronary heart disease."

Because pipe and cigar smokers rarely inhale deeply, says the new report, they are only slightly more susceptible to lung cancer than nonsmokers. But pipe smokers can develop cancer of the mouth or lip. Many pipe puffers and cigar chompers do draw smoke down as far as the larynx. As a result, their chances of developing cancer of the throat are three to seven times greater than those of people who avoid smoking of any kind.

The Surgeon General's findings brought a prompt retort from the Tobacco Institute, which declared: "The question of health and smoking is still a question." In turn, the American Cancer Society urged the tobacco industry to use the money saved by the demise of TV cigarette ads to mount a new, massive research program that "might even lead you to a safer cigarette."

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