Thank you for being here, and we will have further opportunities to work together.

That concludes our hearing today and we stand adjourned.

[Whereupon, at 12:55 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned, to reconvene at the call of the Chair.]

[The following material was submitted for the record:]

TOBACCO RESEARCH COUNCIL HAS BEEN PART OF TOBACCO
INDUSTRY DECEPTION, HEALTH GROUPS SAY

Washington, May 26 --The Council for Tobacco Research has been part of the tobacco industry's shroud of deception, says the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society, united as the Coalition on Smoking OR Health.

"Evidence that has surfaced in tobacco liability cases clearly shows that the Council for Tobacco Research was a linchpin in the tobacco industry's strategy to mislead the public and the Congress about the dangers of smoking," says Scott D. Ballin, chairman of the steering committee of the coalition and vice president, public affairs for the AHA.

Adds Ballin, "The council's role was to provide a front for the tobacco industry's campaign to discredit the medical evidence that smoking causes disease. The council fit perfectly into tobacco companies' primary objectives to sabotage tobacco control legislation and to protect themselves from liability."

Two years ago, the coalition sent a letter to Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asking for an investigation to determine if the tobacco industry had lied to Congress about the purpose of the Council for Tobacco Research. The coalition provided Mr. Dingell with internal tobacco industry documents that were made public in two major tobacco liability cases that were heard in the New Jersey federal court system, Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc. and Haines v. Liggett Group, Inc.

"Since the 1950s, representatives of the Tobacco Institute, the major tobacco companies, the Council for Tobacco Research and public relations firms representing the tobacco industry have appeared before numerous congressional committees, made statements to the media and conducted widespread public relations campaigns that had no other purpose than to deceive," the letter said.

Says Ballin, "We commend Representative Waxman and his subcommittee for initiating these important hearings. The investigation must continue so that all the facts are brought before the public. But we also need a public policy solution that

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will stem the tobacco epidemic and hold the tobacco industry accountable for its actions. We urge Mr. Waxman's subcommittee to move swiftly to pass legislation to regulate the tobacco industry." The coalition supports proposed legislation by Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla., and Rep. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., that would give the FDA full authority to regulate the manufacture, distribution, sale, labeling, advertising and promotion of tobacco products, without having to ban them. The legislation would be consistent with many of the requirements for prescription drugs, including, products containing nicotine, such as nicotine gum and nicotine patches, as well as requirements for foods.

The Coalition on Smoking OR Health was formed in 1982 by the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association to more effectively inform legislators and other public officials about the health consequences of tobacco use. The three health organizations represent more than six million volunteers throughout the United States. ##

STATEMENT OF THE COALITION ON SMOKING OR HEALTH

CONCERNING

THE COUNCIL FOR TOBACCO RESEARCH

The Tobacco Industry Research Committee was established with great fanfare in 1954 by the major tobacco industry manufacturers as well as other companies within the tobacco industry. In an advertisement entitled, "A FRANK STATEMENT TO CIGARETTE SMOKERS," which appeared in over 400 newspapers nationwide, the tobacco industry made the following commitments:

We accept an interest in people's health as a
basic responsibility, paramount to every other
consideration in our business.

We always have and always will cooperate closely
with those whose task it is to safeguard the
public health.

Regardless of the record of the past, the fact that
cigarette smoking today should even be suspected as
a cause of a serious disease is a matter of deep

concern to us.

The advertisement went on to indicate that to carry out its responsibility to the health of the American public, the responsible chief officers of the cigarette manufacturing companies, as well as other tobacco industry associations, were establishing the Tobacco Industry Research Committee (later to become the Council for Tobacco Research).

The Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) was, according to industry statements, "formed in the interest of the public as well as the industry to meet the challenge raised by widely publicized reports in the press purporting to link tobacco smoking with the cause of lung cancer." Tobacco industry testimony and documents were provided to Congress in 1957. In one document entitled, "Statement Concerning the Origin and Purpose of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee and Its Proposed Functions," the tobacco industry indicated that:

In light of the foregoing agitation "(that other things such as air pollution might be a factor in lung cancer)" and in the absence of authoritative findings, there is a responsibility on the part of the management of the tobacco manufacturers and others engaged in the tobacco industry to aid in the final determination of this controversy. It is the earnest wish of the industry to encourage competent scientific authority to find ultimate facts which will dispel the present confusion and to communicate authoritative factual information on the subject to the public.

The document goes on to discuss some of the general duties and responsibilities of the
Committee:

The purposes and objectives of the committee are to aid and assist research into tobacco use and health, and particularly the alleged relationship between the use of tobacco and lung cancer and to make available to the public factual information on this subject. It is the considered judgment of the committee that its activities shall be confined to the purposes set forth

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and that it is in nowise to be considered or to operate as a trade association
or to participate in any activity or give consideration to any matters
affecting the business conduct or activities of its members, and that its
activities in every respect shall conform to law and all decrees or judgments
of courts affecting or relating to the tobacco industry.

In another document submitted to the Congress in 1957 entitled, "Tobacco Industry
Research Committee Statement of Policy Containing Conditions and Terms Under
Which Project Grants Are Made," the TIRC went on to state further:

In so doing "(supporting research concerning tobacco and health)" the TIRC recognizes the importance of independent research by competent investigators..... The Committee desires to have scientists work with the greatest freedom and without domination of any kind. It will make no attempt to direct the administration of the project once started, to influence its course or to control its results other than to be assured that the funds are properly expended for the purposes of the grant and that all findings are to be reported in accordance with the best scientific practice. Since the TIRC was formed in 1954, the TIRC and the tobacco industry manufacturers have appeared before Congress time after time to reiterate the independence of the scientific research being conducted with TIRC funds and to reassure the public that when and if it is established that smoking causes disease, the industry will uphold its promise to the public and "do something about it." What follows are several excerpts from testimony provided to Congress:

1. In July of 1957 Dr. Clarence Cook Little, chairman of the science advisory board of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee told the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce:

The announced purposes and objective of the Tobacco Industry Research
Committee are to aid and assist research in tobacco use and health and to
make available to the public factual information on this subject.... My
appointment is annual and it is clearly understood with the Tobacco
Industry Research Committee that if, as, and when the slightest pressure as
to what type of direction we should take in research or what the publication
of the research should be, is evident that my resignation takes effect
immediately. I can say truthfully and honestly that during the period that
I have worked on this problem, there has not been the slightest effort to
"pull punches," to select evidence, or to limit objectives for research.

2. On June 25, 1964, Bowman Gray, Chairman of the Board of R.J. Reynolds and spokesperson for the tobacco industry testified before the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. In addition to his testimony the following exchange took place between him and the Members of the Committee (Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Curtin):

Mr. MACDONALD. Sir, I have just one question to ask. I was not here when you gave your statement but I read on page 4 about the Council for Tobacco Research which you say is comprised of eminent medical scientists and grants of over $7 million have been given to that body by the cigarette industry or tobacco industry.