Tirc's Organization And PolicyA document on TIRC's general organization and policy {1903.03} states that TIRC is independent of the industry and that its purpose is to fund research into the health effects of tobacco. Although this document was prepared for internal use by B&W staff, it contains the same statements about the role of TIRC that were made publicly at the time—possibly because it was written by a member of B&W's public relations department. The Tobacco Industry Research Committee is the sponsoring agency of a research program into questions of tobacco use and health. It was organized in early 1954 by representatives of tobacco manufacturers, growers and warehousemen.
Shortly after organization, the T.I.R.C. invited doctors and scientists who were well known for their work in cancer and other diseases to serve on a Scientific Advisory Board to administer a grants-in-aid program. This Board currently consists of nine scientists who maintain their respective institutional affiliations.
Grants by the Board through 1962 have been made to nearly 140 scientists in over 90 hospitals, universities, and research institutions from funds that now total $6,250,000 appropriated by the T.I.R.C. {1903.03, p. 1}
― 36 ― The document then discusses the role of TIRC's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), which was always described as being an independent group of scientists that had complete control over awarding funding. The Scientific Advisory Board has full responsibility for research policy and programming. As a Board it does not directly engage in research for the T.I.R.C. and the T.I.R.C. itself does not operate any research facility.
Grants-in-aid for research are made by the Board to independent scientists who are assured complete scientific freedom in conducting their research. They alone are responsible for reporting or publishing their findings in the accepted scientific manner—through medical and scientific journals and societies. From the outset, the Tobacco Industry Research Committee has made clear that the object of its research program is to encourage scientific study for facts about tobacco use and health. Its position is that research will help provide the knowledge about lung cancer and heart disease for a full evaluation of all factors being studied in connection with these diseases [emphasis added]. {1903.03, p. 1}
Table 2.1 lists the members of TIRC's and CTR's advisory boards from 1964 through 1994. In general, the members of the SAB were well-respected academic researchers whose presence lent credibility to CTR. TIRC and CTR also had a scientific director who was responsible for outlining a research program and allocating research funds to best advance this program {1920.01, p. 34}. However, as described in chapter 8, the SAB and the scientific director did not always make the final decisions about which projects could be funded by CTR. Tobacco industry lawyers were responsible for many of the funding decisions. Nevertheless, in all the public statements that the industry has released over the years, it has staunchly maintained that TIRC, and later CTR, was an independent organization devoted to determining the health effects of tobacco. As we show later in this section and in chapter 8, however, the industry privately admitted that the main purpose of TIRC was public relations: to keep the "controversy" over smoking and health alive. The document on TIRC's organization and policy also describes its position on the health effects of tobacco—namely, that the links between smoking and disease had not been proven and that more research was needed to determine the role of tobacco in various diseases. During the past year, the Tobacco Industry Research Committee has continued and extended its support of research.
While these research studies have increased our factual knowledge, they have at the same time continued to make clear and to emphasize the great and critical gaps in that knowledge. ...
― 37 ― | | TABLE 2.1 MEMBERS OF TIRC/CTR SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD | Name | Affiliation | Dates of Service | Howard B. Andervont, ScD | Scientific Editor, Journal of the National Cancer Institute. | 4/20/64 to 12/31/66; 1970 to 12/31/74 | Richard J. Bing, MD | Professor of Medicine, Washington University; Director, Washington University Medical Service, V.A. Hospital; Professor and Chairman, Dept. of Medicine, Wayne State University College of Medicine; Director of Cardiology and Intramural Medicine, Huntington Memorial Hospital; Professor of Medicine, University of Southern California School of Medicine; Director of Experimental Cardiology and Scientific Development, Huntington Medical Research Institute; Visiting Associate, California Institute of Technology. | 6/6/58 to present[1] | Roswell K. Boutwell, PhD | Professor of Oncology, McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin. | 7/28/80 to 5/31/84 | Drummond H. Bowden, MD | Professor and Head, Department of Pathology, University of Manitoba Health Sciences Center. | 4/24/81 to present[1] | Michael J. Brennan, MD | President and Medical Director, Michigan Cancer Foundation. | 3/23/81 to present[1] | McKeen Cattell, PhD, MD | Professor of Pharmacology, Cornell University Medical College. | 3/30/54 to 4/13/73 | Julius H. Comroe, Jr., MD | Director, Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California Medical Center; Chairman and Professor, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Medicine. | 8/12/54 to 3/16/60 | John E. Craighead, MD | Professor and Chairman, Department of Pathology, and Director of Laboratories, University of Vermont College of Medicine and Medical Center Hospital of Vermont. | 11/76 to 10/77 | Joseph D. Feldman, MD | Head, Department of Immunopathology, Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation; Member, Research Institute of Scripps Clinic; Editor, Journal of Immunology. | 3/74 to present[1] | William U. Gardner, PhD | E. K. Hunt Professor of Anatomy, Yale University School of Medicine. | 11/15/71 to 2/26/85 | Peter M. Howley, MD | Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute. | 7/7/82 to present[1] | Robert J. Huebner, MD | Chief, Viral Carcinogenesis Branch, National Cancer Institute; Chief, Laboratory of RNA Tumor Viruses, National Cancer Institute; Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology, National Cancer Institute. | 4/68 to 12/31/81 |
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― 38 ― | | TABLE 2.1 (continued) | Name | Affiliation | Dates of Service | Leon O. Jacobson, MD | Professor and Chairman, Dept. of Medicine, Dean of the Division of Biological Sciences, Regenstein Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Chicago; Director, Argonne Cancer Research Hospital; Director, The Franklin McLean Memorial Research Institute. | 4/5/54 to present[1] | Manfred L. Karnovsky, PhD | Harold T. White Professor of Biological Chemistry, Dept. of Biological Chemistry, Harvard Medical School. | 5/3/85 to present[1] | Paul Kotin, MD | Paul Pierce Professor of Pathology, University of Southern California School of Medicine; Chief, Carcinogenesis Studies Branch and Associate Director of Field Studies, National Cancer Institute. | 4/12/54 to 11/26/65 | Averill A. Liebow, MD | Professor and Chairman, Department of Pathology, University of California School of Medicine, San Diego. | 9/10/73 to 2/1/77 | Clarence Cook Little, ScD, LLD, LittD | Director, Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory. | 3/31/54 to 12/23/71 | Clayton G. Loosli, PhD, MD | Hastings Professor of Medicine and Pathology, University of Southern California School of Medicine. | 10/19/66 to 8/1/73 | Henry T. Lynch, MD | Professor and Chairman, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Creighton University School of Medicine; Professor of Medicine, President, Hereditary Cancer Institute, Creighton University School of Medicine. | 11/15/73 to present[1] | Kenneth M. Lynch, MD, ScD, LLD | President, Dean of Faculty, Professor of Pathology, and Chancellor, Medical College of South Carolina. | 3/31/54 to 11/29/74 (became board member emeritus in 1973) | Hans Meier, DVM, Dr.Med. Vet, MRSH | Senior Staff Scientist, The Jackson Laboratory. | 10/31/71 to 5/14/81 | G. Barry Pierce, MD | American Cancer Society Centennial Research Professor, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. | 3/18/82 to present[1] | Stanley P. Reimann, MD, ScD | Scientific Director, Institute for Cancer Research; Director, Lankenau Hospital Research Institute. | 3/29/54 to 2/21/68 | Gordon H. Sato, PhD | Professor of Biology, University of California, San Diego; Director, W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center. | 4/28/80 to present[1] | William F. Rienhoff, Jr., MD | Professor of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine. | 4/2/54 to 9/19/72 |
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― 39 ― | | TABLE 2.1 (continued) | Name | Affiliation | Dates of Service | Sheldon C. Sommers, MD | Professor of Pathology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; Director of Laboratories, Lenox Hill Hospital. | 7/66 to present[1] | Lee W. Wattenberg, MD | Professor of Pathology, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota Medical School. | 10/9/75 to 1/9/79 | Edwin B. Wilson, PhD, LLD | Professor of Vital Statistics, Harvard University. | 7/12/54 to 12/28/64 | John P. Wyatt, MD | Professor and Head, Department of Pathology, University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine; Director, Tobacco and Health Research Institute, University of Kentucky. | 10/13/72 to 1/22/80 | [1] "Present" is December 1994. | Source: {1920.01, p. 28} |
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The smoking of tobacco continues to be one of the subjects requiring study in the lung cancer problem, as do many other agents and influences in modern living. Science does not yet know enough about any suspected factors to judge whether they may operate alone, whether they may operate in conjunction with others, or whether they may affect or be affected by factors of whose existence science is not yet aware. Indeed, it is not known whether these factors actually are "causative" in any real sense.
As the tobacco industry continues its support of the search for truth and knowledge, it must recognize, as is always the case in true scientific research, there can be no promise of a quick answer. The important thing is to keep on adding to knowledge until the accumulative facts provide the basis for a sound conclusion. {1903.03, pp. 1–3}
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