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at Brown and Williamson. According to an account in the New 

 York Times, these research findings so shocked the industry that 

 a decision was made in 1963 to withhold this information from the 

 Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health. 

 Had this information been made available, a growing number of 

 public health authorities believe public policy toward tobacco may 

 have been dramatically altered. 



On May 11, the subcommittee invited Mr. Thomas Sandefur, Jr., 

 of Brown and Williamson and Patrick Sheehy of British-American 

 Tobacco to testify concerning these serious allegations. Mr. Sheehy 

 of BAT notified the subcommittee by letter that the company would 

 not appear to answer questions on this matter. At the request of 

 Mr. Sandefur's attorney, we have agreed to postpone his testimony 

 until Friday, May 20. 



In light of this postponement, we will hear from only one witness 

 this morning. Joseph Califano is currently the director of the Cen- 

 ter on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. As 

 domestic policy advisor to President L3mdon Johnson and Secretary 

 of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Jimmy Carter, 

 Mr. Califano is uniquely qualified to comment on the impact of the 

 tobacco industry suppression of research during the critical, forma- 

 tive years of U.S. tobacco control policy. 



During congressional hearings in 1965, Congress heard tobacco 

 industry scientists repeatedly criticize the findings of the Surgeon 

 General's 1964 report. They argued that any effort to link cigarette 

 smoking to human illness or mortality was, quote, "a considerable 

 element of guess and gamble", end auote. But the 89th Congress 

 didn't hear from those who conducted or evaluated the tobacco in- 

 dustry's secret research projects. The Congress didn't have the 

 1963 memorandum referred to in the New York Times where 

 Addison Yeaman, the general counsel of Brown and Williamson, ac- 

 knowledged that cigarette smoking was addictive, an admission 

 more sweeping and clear than the findings of the Surgeon General. 



Mr. Califano will testify on the impact withholding the informa- 

 tion had on Federal efforts to curtail tobacco use and the cost to 

 the Medicare program. In fact, the Center on Addiction and Sub- 

 stance Abuse at Columbia University has concluded that cigarette 

 smoking is the largest single drain on the Medicare trust fund. Un- 

 less Congress recognizes this fact, the high cost of cigarette smok- 

 ing will continue to threaten the Medicare system and will cause 

 the expenditures of untold billions of health care dollars. 



Before recognizing other members of the subcommittee for their 

 statements, I want to make some brief comments about our hear- 

 ing for next Friday. We expect the chief executive officer of Brown 

 and Williamson, Thomas Sandefur, to testify before this sub- 

 committee. 



The tobacco industry may not like it, but their days of secrets on 

 health research and health impacts are over. The public has a right 

 to know this information, and this subcommittee will not be intimi- 

 dated by the industry's cadre of lawyers and public relations spe- 

 cialists. In meeting our responsibility, this subcommittee will pro- 

 ceed fairly and protect the rights of every witness who testifies. 



Mr. Sandefur's lawyers have made a clearly inappropriate re- 

 quest to review documents the subcommittee has received in the 



