remiss because it has not fully agreed with the Staff's position on smoking and health. Any objective review of past industry action with respect to advertising reveals that the position of the tobacco industry has been a responsible one. Since the Surgeon General's initial Report on Smoking and Health was issued in 1964, the tobacco industry has taken a number of significant steps to modify its advertising and promotional practices, especially to avoid influence on teenagers. It has eliminated advertising in student publications and the distribution of cigarette samples on campuses or near schools. It has eliminated the use of testimonials by athletes and public figures in cigarette advertising, and has required that all models used in cigarette advertising be, and appear to be, 25 or older. It supported the ban on broadcast advertising of cigarettes. When, in 1959, the FTC decided that "all representations of low or reduced tar or nicotine, whether by filtration or otherwise, will be construed as health claims," the industry voluntarily agreed to eliminate all references to "tar" and nicotine from cigarette advertising. A few years later, when the Commission reversed its position, the industry acceded to its request that cigarette advertising disclose "tar" and nicotine content. In 1972 the members of the industry agreed to the Consent Orders requiring the warning statement in all cigarette advertising. The industry to date has committed more than $91 million, on a no-strings-attached basis, to fund independent scientific and medical research on smoking and health questions. While its views on smoking and health questions differ from those of the FTC Staff, it does not use cigarette advertisements to argue those views or to discredit the Surgeon General's conclusions. The industry will continue to maintain a responsible advertising policy. It will not, however, submit to each annual flight of fancy by the FTC Staff. Smoking and Health 1964-1979 THE CONTINUING CONTROVERSY THE TOBACCO INSTITUTE 1875 I Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20006 January 10, 1979 Preface The American people would be better served if high government health officials and private interest groups which encourage them abandoned the myth of "waging war" against diseases and their alleged causes. The process of making public policy is better served when areas of scientific unknowns are illuminated by the light of reasoned deliberation rather than the heat of emotional rhetoric. Nature will not yield her secrets to media events, propaganda barrages, self-righteous zeal or official fiat. The enigma of cancer and chronic diseases will yield only to the steady advance of scientific knowledge. And knowledge does not flourish in a lock-step society. It grows best under conditions of unfettered investigation and free, fair and full discussion. - Indeed, many scientists are becoming concerned that preoccupation with smoking may be both unfounded and dangerous unfounded because evidence on many critical points is conflicting, dangerous because it diverts attention from other suspected hazards. It should be noted that plans for the first the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health in 1964 called for "the study [to] be concerned not only with tobacco, but all other factors which may be involved such as air pollution, automobile exhausts, etc.' report of |