Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph No. 7 
DR. FREEMAN: To play devil's advocate, there seems to be a point on the 
other side that, if the American public becomes confused about the value of 
low dose vs. high dose, would it defeat the purpose of encouraging people 
to switch, assuming there is a benefit to low-dose cigarettes? 1 think I am 
hearing those two arguments. Yes, Dr. Giovino? 
DR. GIOVINO: 1 think part of any disclaimer that would be given if you 
decided to do that would include the statement that I read earlier from 
the Surgeon General's report that any cigarette smoking is dangerous, that 
quitting is absolutely the best thing a person could do to protect his or her 
health, and that reducing to these brands "may." And that is exactly what 
the Surgeon General's report says, "May pose reduced risk, provided that 
no compensation occurs." 1 think those two caveats are absolutely essential, 
that quitting is better than switching and that provided no compensation 
there may be reduced risk. 
DR. FREEMAN: Dr. Benowitz? 
DR. BENOWITZ: I think there is a second function that the FTC testing does 
perform, and that is to mold what the tobacco companies provide. I do 
think that there has been a reduction in lung cancer if you compare 1950's 
cigarettes to modern cigarettes, and I would not want to lose that pressure 
to keep yields as low as possible. I think whatever we do, we do not want 
to lose that by saying that it does not matter at all. The other argument 
is if there is a 10-percent reduction of health hazard — which would be very 
difficult to measure by epidemiological means — if you are applying it to 
about 40 million smokers, that can be substantial. And I would not want 
to lose that for the population either. 
1 do not want to be misleading. I certainly appreciate Dr. Hughes' point 
of view, but 1 think we somehow should not let things slide the other way. 
DR. FREEMAN: Is there any way that you can bring the two points of view 
together? I think this is a very important point. We need to settle it here. 
DR. STITZER: There is just one other thing. The only way that this 
information can be relevant to the individual consumer is if there is a way 
for that individual to judge where he or she falls along the dose continuum. 
Now, that could be accomplished with a lovely sophisticated method like 
Dr. Rickert has described with the color coding. I do not know whether that 
technology is sufficiently available to incorporate into our recommendations, 
but it could be part of our recommendation that we try to develop a system 
that allows the individual smoker to know where they fall on the exposure 
and dose continuum. 
DR. FREEMAN: Yes, Dr. Hughes? 
DR. HUGHES: I disagree a little bit with you. Dr. Stitzer. F,ven if people 
could tell exactly where they were on the dose continuum, that does not 
solve the problem of the dose response-health benefits curve being so 
shallow. Alsr), 1 want to respond to your comment. 1 am not saying that 
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