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C STATEMENT OF HORACE R. KORNEGAY ,gRESIDENT, THE TOBACCO INSTITUTE, INC. Before the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce February 15, 1978 My name is Horace R. Kornegay. Since June 1970, I have served as President of The Tobacco Institute, an association of tobacco manufacturers in the United States. I appreciate your invitation, Mr. Chairman, to tPs t= fy at this hearing to review the "Anti-Smoking Initiative" proposed by Secretary Califano. I thank you for this opportunity to exprdss views on behalf of The Tobacco Institute. However, I regret that I did not have adequate time to prepare for this hearing. A call to my staff about this hearing was made last Wednesday afternoon. But it was only this Monday morning at 11:25 a.m. that I received a letter from you, Mr. Chairman, officially advising me of these hearings and of the details of the matters to be considered. W~th the time constraints under which I was'working, it was not possible to prepare a comprehensive presentation of our concerns as to "the general issues surrounding" the extremely broad Anti- Smoking Initiative proposed by Secretary Califano. Let me assure you, Mr. Chairman, The Tobacco Institute is deeply concerned by Secretary Califano's proposed'Initiative, and believes that his 03745143 program is unjustified both scientifically and as a matter of public policy. -

14- -2- At the outset, let me further assure you that the tobacco industry has been and remains concerned about the critical questions relating to smoking and health. During the past quarter century, the industry has supported inde- pendent scientific research with completely non-restrictive funding. The total has now reached more than 65 million dollars, including 619 grants and contracts in 243 medical schools, hospitals and institutions. The industry has funded multi-million dollar projects at Washington University in St. Louis, the Harvard Medical School and the UCLA School of Medicine. To turn to Secretary Califano's Initiative, I must first emphasize that it is based on a series of factual in- accuracies and scientifically unsupportable figures and estimates. Let me illustrate: Secretary Califano in his January llth speech said that virtually all physicians accept the evidence that smoking is harmful to health. On this, basic issue of smoking and health, Congressional hearings were held in the House Commerce Committee in 1964, 1965 and 1969, in the Senate Commerce Committee in 1965, 1969 and 1972, and in the Senate Subcommittee on Health as late as 1976. Indeed, some members of this Subcommittee were present and participated in several of those hearings. At those hearings, many eminent scientists stated that, in their opinions, smoking had not been scientifically established as a cause of human disease. These 03745144 statements demonstrate the inaccuracy of Secretary Califano's

We bel ieve that the Amer ican publ ic ha s been and continues to-be adequately warned about the claimed health risks associated with smoking. As President Carter said May 1976 at a press conference -- and I quote: "I think that the American people have in been adequately warned. You know we've had a constant series of warnings both in television, radio, newspaper advertisements. We've got strict limitations on the kind of advertisement that cigarettes can present to the public; we've got a printed warning on every package of cigarettes about the danger to one's health and I personally believe that that is an adequate degree of warning to be instituted by the government." Indeed, even the non-smoking youth of our nation are aware, as demonstrated by the fact that Secretary Califano's own decision to quit smoking was made at the insistence of his then eleven-year-old son. Yet, many Americans have chosen to continue to smoke. We believe their choice should be respected. So does President Carter. When he was asked at a news conference on January 12th of this year what he intended to do about White House staff members who smoke, he said it -was not the responsibility of 03'745145 government to "tell a particular American citizen whether they can or cannot snoke."

e . C -7- We 'have serious reservations about Secretary . Califano's so-called education effort. First, we question the need to spend Federal funds and involve the Federal bureaucracy in an increased public education program, since the American public has been adequately warned on the smoking and health issue. In addition, we question the Secretary's priorities. We are concerned that the Secretary's excessive zeal regarding smoking education will distort and deemphasize the information provided to the American public and to school children in~ such areas as drug and alcohol abuse, proper nutrition and the like. F inally, it is unclear how the Secretary proposes to assure the effectiveness of his pro- posed education program. Are Federal off icials going to withhold Federal funds from a school district because they think its smoking education efforts fail to conform to federal guidelines? The Washington Star commented in an editorial, "What Mr. Califano is doing with his anti-smoking hoohah is illustrating further the tilted concept of the feds as parents and the citizenry as recalicitrant and contrary children, to be coerced if they will not heed.• Secretary Caiifano's coercive progra.~n~, which pur- portedly protects non-smokers from exposure to tobacco smoke, cannot be Justified on the premise that smoking is ha~ar45146 to non-smokers. It has not been scientif ically established