397 



STATEMENT OF THE COAUTION 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 i ndus try. 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 (TTRC) 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 

 flndings, 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 



