THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180569
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
LENGTH: 49 lines
A team of researchers says it has found a direct scientific link between smoking and lung cancer, a discovery that adds yet another piece to the already substantial evidence that tobacco-smoking is a cause of cancer.
The findings, published today in the journal Science, report the first evidence from the cell biology level linking smoking to lung cancer. The scientists say a chemical found in cigarette smoke has been found to cause genetic damage in lung cells that is identical to the damage observed in many malignant tumors of the lung.
The findings establish the long-missing link, in the opinion of experts in the field of cancer genetics, and may also play a role in pending litigation about smoking illnesses and passive smoking.
While many scientists have long been convinced by statistical studies and animal experiments that tobacco causes cancer, a statistical association was not in itself absolute proof.
This has allowed defenders of smoking to deny that cigarettes cause cancer, and scientists have not known the exact mechanism that would put the matter beyond doubt.
``This paper absolutely pinpoints that mutations in lung cancer are caused by a carcinogen in cigarette smoke,'' said Dr. John Minna, a researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. ``It is the smoking gun that makes the connection.''
``It puts a very firm nail on this coffin,'' said Dr. Bert Vogelstein of the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center in Baltimore.
The Tobacco Institute, a trade group based in Washington, and the New York office of Philip Morris said Thursday that they were not prepared to comment.
John Banzhaf, a professor of law at Georgetown University who is familiar with laws and lawsuits that deal with smoking said the new research would have profound consequences, both in the courtroom and in everyday life.
Banzhaf said the study would be a powerful weapon for eliminating smoking from those public places that still allow it.
And he predicted that the research's pinpointing of a specific mechanism for lung cancer would be a severe blow to the tobacco industry in court, where until recently it had been all but impervious to lawsuits from people claiming that they had become ill from smoking.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, with about 170,000 new cases being diagnosed in the country each year.
KEYWORDS: SMOKING CANCER STUDY by CNB