Film on Smoking and Lung Cancer


Film on Smoking and Lung Cancer

TITLE: Draft Memorandum by Tobacco Institute Prepared in Connection with Ongoing Litigation Transmitted to RJR Legal Department Copied to RJR Scientist Concerning Smoking and Health Issues and Containing Extensive Handwritten Marginalia by RJR Scientist (fg Colby) Performing Work On Behalf of the Legal Department.

Date: May 24, 1982
Author: TI
Recipient: Legal Dept
Copied: Colby Fg
Length: 18 pages
TDO-951964 Bliley Collection-1964
Bates:500888775 -500888792
URL: http://www.tobaccodocuments.com/view.cfm?CitID=951964&GetListArrayIdx=1&ShowImages=yes


D R A F T

"UNTITLED"

(Film on Smoking and Lung Cancer)

Special Projects
May 24, 1982


1

INTERIOR A "VIDEO CONTROL" ENVIRONMENT. THE CAMERA HOLDS TO ESTABLISH A BANK OF MONITORS WITH A VARIETY OF IMAGES ON THE SCREENS: FACES OF PEOPLE, INTERIORS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH LABORATORIES, CHARTS, A GLOWING BANK OF NUMBERS, AND FINALLY -- THE TITLE OF THE FILM.

CAMERA PANS TO REVEAL RICHARD ANDERSON SEATED, READING PAPERS. HE ACKNOWLEDGES
CAMERA, AND SPEAKS TO THE AUDIENCE.

DICK (SYNC):

Modern science has produced remarkable results: the polio vaccine, penicillin, the infant mortality rate has dropped in many instances. The accomplishments go on and on.

The list is impressive because there are a great many intelligent, hard-working professionals engaged fulltime in solving the mysteries of science.

CU DICK, ANOTHER ANGLE.

But the mysteries still exist. There are the obvious ones: Parkinson's disease, Downes Syndrome, the brain.

DICK (SYNC)

There are the not-so-obvious mysteries: Reyes Syndrome, a long list of diseases that are not well known but nevertheless bring great suffering to many people.


2

CU DICK, ANOTHER ANGLE.

Tragedies... all of them.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of all is when an important medical question has not been answered, but most everyone thinks it has. That's a tragedy of a different sort.

DICK WALKS FROM BEHIND CONSOLE AND RESTS ON EDGE OF DESK.

Let's take a look at something most people believe to be true... the matter of cigarette smoking and lung cancer.

CAMERA MOVES PAST DICK TO MONITOR WITH GLOWING BANK OF NUMBERS.

DICK (VO):

We asked 1,500 adult Americans -- selected at random -- what they thought.

We travelled to cities throughout the United States and asked this question:

CU MONITOR WITH TEXT OF QUESTION "DOES CIGARETTE SMOKING CAUSE LUNG CANCER?"


3

DICK (VO):

Do you think cigarette smoking causes lung cancer?

CUT TO MONITORS WITH FACES OF INDIVIDUALS. SCREEN FILLS WITH ONE OF THOSE FACES.

WOMAN (SYNC):

No doubt in my mind. Cigarettes cause lung cancer.

ANOTHER INTERVIEW.

MAN (SNYC):

Learned that a dozen years ago in school. The answer is "yes."

ANOTHER INTERVIEW.

MAN (SYNC):

Are you kidding me? Everyone knows that.

DICK, CU.

DICK (SYNC):

Most people we talked to believe smoking causes lung cancer. But medical science isn't so sure. A good many scientists do feel that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer. But a number of scientists feel the jury is still out.


4

CAMER MOVES PAST DICK TO MONITOR WITH STERLING IN CU.

DICK (VO):

Dr. Theodore Sterling of Canada's prestigious Simon-Fraser University...

CU DR. STERLING.

DR. STERLING (SYNC):

Does cigarette smoking cause lung cancer? Well, I don't think anyone knows... there are a lot of statistics which can be interpreted that way. But - speaking as a scientist -- there are just too many questions without answers.

DR. STERLING, ANOTHER ANGLE.

I've taken a hard look at some of those questions. For instance, I've found that among smokers who got lung cancer, a good many of them were also exposed repeatedly to a variety of fumes and dust. Was it the cigarette smoking or the dust and the fumes? Maybe something else.

We don't know.

CU, DICK:


5

DICK (SYNC):

We don't know. How can that be?

Haven't there been years of scientific research - using animals and all sorts of research
techniques?

MONITOR SHOWING LABORATORY ANIMALS.

DICK (VO):

Laboratory animals? Well, it wasn't too long ago that a well-respected researcher, Dr. Alvan Feinstein, wrote about smoke inhalation experiments.

MONITOR SHOWING QUOTATION FROM DR. FEINSTEIN'S ARTICLE.

DICK (VO):

No well designed and well conducted experiments have shown that cigarette smoke causes lung cancer in animals.

MS DICK, RESTING ON EDGE OF DESK.

DICK (SYNC):

If research hasn't shown smoking causes lung cancer in animals, why are people
so sure?


6

CAM6A FOLLOWS DICK AS HE STANDS UP AND WALKS TO REVEAL MONITORS.

DICK (SYNC):

Mostly, the answer is statistics. Numbers. Are they conclusive? No... but there's no doubt in my mind that statistics.. and statistical methods... are an important tool.

CAMERA ON MONITOR WITH GLOWING BANK OF NUMBERS.

DICK (VO):

Let's take a look at one kind of statistics: Opinion research. We asked our panel of 1,500 adult Americans: Do the statistics convince you that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer? Do they leave any doubt in your mind?

MONITOR SHOWS RAPIDLY TOTALING NUMBER SHOWING THAT MOST RESPONDENTS ARE SATISFIED WITH THE STATISTICAL EVIDENCE.

DICK, CU.

DICK (SNYC):

What do they think in Boston... in San Francisco... Atlanta... around the U.S.?

CAMERA MOVES TO MONITORS WITH INDIVIDUAL FACES; SCREEN FILLS WITH FACE OF ONE MAN STANDING IN FRONT OF A SUPER MARKET.


7

MAN (SYNC):

Statistics? Sure, when it comes to cigarettes, that's all the evidence I need.

A WOMAN'S FACE FILLS THE SCREEN, ANOTHER LOCATION.

WOMAN (SYNC):

Statistics? Well, I've heard liars figure and figures lie. But. I'm not so sure about this one.

There's an awful lot of statistics which show smoking causes lung cancer,

ANOTHER WOMAN, ANOTHER LOCATION.

WOMAN (SYNC):

No doubt in my mind. Numbers tell it all.

CAMERA RETURNS TO DICK IN FRONT OF CONSOLE. PICKS UP A STETHOSCOPE.

DICK (SYNC):

Numbers tell it all? Well, using the same statistical methods used by most medical researchers, I can show you a significant statistical relationship between the number of doctors in a community and an increased risk of lung cancer. Surely no one would conclude from this correlation that physicians "cause" lung cancer.


8

.DICK PUTS STETHOSCOPE DOWN.

DICK, ANOTHER ANGLE.

DICK (SYNC):

No, numbers don't tell it all. But they can help sort through a lot of information: numbers can help scientists decide what to study. But, statistics just plain don't prove anything.

DICK (SYNC):

At best, theytre a big help; at worst, misleading.

CAMERA MOVES TO MONITOR WITH U.S. MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF GREATEST INCIDENCE OF LUNG CANCER.

DICK (VO):

For instance, you take a look at some general statistics about smoking and lung cancer and you would get the idea that wherever smokers live, the lung cancer rate is high. Makes sense. But, it isn't necessarily so.

STATISTICAL READOUTS BY GEOGRAPHIC AREA.

DICK (VO):

Look at this. From the National Cancer Institute... New Jersey. The heavy manufacturing areas... this


9

is where lung cancer is heaviest. Are these the areas where smokers are most likely to live? No, smokers are evenly distributed throughout the United States.

CUT TO INTERNATIONAL GRAPHICS ON MONITOR.

DICK (VO):

Internationally there are a lot of questions; questions not answered but raised by statistics.

MONITOR SHOWS CLOSEUP OF U.S. AND CANADA. STATISTICS SUPER OVER MAP OUTLINES.

DICK (VO):

The U.S. and Canada have the highest per capita cigarette consumption in the world, but they rank eighth and 15th respectively in lung cancer deaths of males.

MONITOR CHANGES TO EUROPE OUTLINE.

DICK (VO):

Conversely, the United Kingdom, Finland and the Netherlands have lower per
capita consumption than the U.S. and Canada, but they have far higher lung cancer death
rates.


10

SUPER STATISTICS OVER MAP OUTLINES.

DICK (VO):

Number? Let's take an even closer look. After all, much of the evidence about
smoking and lung cancer depends on numbers. Where do the numbers come from?

CAMERA MOVES TO A MONITOR WITH THE fACE OF A PHYSICIAN, A MEDICAL EXAMINER.

MEDICAL EXAMINER: We get most of our lung cancer statistics from death certificates... you know, the form that is filled out in the hospital when someone dies. The problem is they're often inaccurate. You can't really know the cause of death without an autopsy, and autopsies are performed in relatively few cases. Even with an autopsy, you can't always be sure that a lung cancer did not travel to the lung, "metasthesize" from another part of the body.

DICK, CU.

DICK (SYNC):

Here's another interesting fact we uncovered on the subject of autopsies and
statistics. Can


11

doctors look at a lung and know if the person was a smoker? We put this
question to our panel of 1,500 American adults.

CAMERA MOVES TO MONITOR SHOWING TEXT OF QUESTIONS AND BANK OF NUMBERS.
NUMBERS TOTAL RAPIDLY SHOWING A LARGE PERCENTAGE WHO BELIEVE DOCTORS CAN LOOK
AT A LUNG AND DETERMINE WHETHER THE PERSON SMOKED.

DICK (VO):

Let's talk to some folks directly and get their answers.

CAMERA MOVES TO THE MONITORS WITH THE INDIVIDUAL FACES. A MAN APPEARS.

MAN (SYNC):

Sure. I understand a smoker's lung gets black over time.

WOMAN IS ON THE NEXT MONITOR.

WOMAN (SYNC):

That's probably the tar and nicotine you're talking about. Sure, I've seen pictures... I guess.

ANOTHER WOMAN,


12

WOMAN (SYNC):

Smoker's lungs are definitely blacker... makes sense,

DICK, CU.

DICK (SYNC):

Well, maybe it makes sense because it's been said so often. But that doesn't make it true. Let's look at Congressional testimony from a pathologist who has looked at thousands of lungs...

CAMERA MOVES TO MONITOR WHERE THESE WORDS ARE DISPLAYED.

PATHOLOGIST (VO): It is not possible. grossly or microscopically, or in any other way known to me, to distinguish between the lung of a smoker or a nonsmoker.

DICK (VO):
At the same hearing, another expert said:

NEW TEXT DISPLAYED ON MONITOR.

EXPERT (VO):

(J,

I would estimate that of a thousand pathologists in this country 998 would say, 'I could not tell and two would say, 'I could tell' and that those


13

two who could tell either had some divine intuition or were not telling the truth.

DICK, WALKING BEHIND CONSOLE.

DICK (SYNC):

Pretty strong words.

DICK SITS DOWN. MONITORS IN BKG.

DICK (SYNC):
Well what have we found so far?

We started by agreeing that most people believe cigarette smoking causes cancer... but we found that some scientists aren't so sure...

CUT TO MONITOR IN REPRISE FACES OF INTERVIEWEES. THEN CUT TO MONITOR WITH
EXPERIMENTAL ANIMAL FOOTAGE.

DICK (VO):

We found that most people believe that extensive laboratory inhalation experiments involving animals is proof that smoking causes lung cancer. But we found that just wasn't so either.

MS. DICK NEW ANGLE.


14

DICK (SYNC):

We found that most people are satisfied that sta tistics tell the whole story, but we found out that statistics do a better job of raising questions than answering them.

DICK, ANOTHER ANGLE.

DICK (SYNC):

75/11

And we found that even the source of the statistics that are being used... well, maybe they're not all that accurate either.

DICK GETS UP FROM BEHIND THE CONSOLE, WALKS OVER TO A MEDICAL MODEL OF A SET OF LUNGS.

DICK, ANOTHER ANGLE.

DICK (SYNC):

Does cigarette smoking cause lung,cancer? You may be expecting me to say 'no.' But the answer is, I don't know... no one does. Not the scientists, nor the physicians; not the American Cancer Society nor the American Lung Association. And the people who make cigarettes, they don't know either.


15

DICK (SYNC):

Does that surprise you? Certainly, we've all read that the cigarette industry denies that it's been proven that smoking causes lung cancer.

CAMERA MOVES TO MONITORS WITH INDIVIDUAL FACES. A MAN'S FACE FILLS THE SCREEN.

MAN (SYNC):

The cigarette companies? I've heard they say that smoking definitely doesn't cause lung cancer, or anything else for that matter.

A WOMAN APPEARS.

DICK, CU.

WOMAN (SYNC):

No. The cigarette companies believe their products do not cause lung cancer. What do you expect them to say?

DICK (SYNC):

Well, let's hear what the cigarette companies do say. Let's go to Washington and hear from the Chairman of the Tobacco Institute, the organization which represents tobacco companies: Horace Kornegay.


16

CAMERA MOVES TO MONITOR WITH KORNEGAY.

KORNEGAY (SYNC):

We don't know, nobody does. But, as an industry, we've spent more than any non-governmental agency trying to find out, more than the American Cancer Society and Lung Association combined. We have one position and that's all: there is a clear need for answers and carefully conducted research is the only way we're going to get answers.

KORNEGAY, DIFFERENT ANGLE.

KORNEGAY (SYNC):

We do know that a lot of folks feel that all of the answers are known, that cigarette smoking does cause cancer. We know that a lot of people consider it a closed subject. But that's all the more reason for us to fund serious research. It's the right thing, the constructive thing to do.


17

DICK (SYNC):

Cigarette smoking and lung cancer? Is it a closed book? No. It is one of many scientific mysteries yet to be solved.

CU, DICK:

Thanks for joining us. This is Dick Anderson.

CAMERA ZOOMS BACK TO LS WITH DICK AT CONSOLE.

CLOSING CREDITS SUPERED OVER LS SET IN DIM LIGHT.

CREDITS MUST INCLUDE FIRST AMENDMENT STATEMENT.

Bates 500888792 is page 18 of 18

This document's URL is: http://www.tobacco.org/Documents/820524rjrfilm.html

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