"The link between smoking and lung cancer in humans was denied for many years based on vivisection data. Health warnings were delayed for all those years." Moneim A. Fadali, M.D., Animal Experimentation, A Harvest of Shame, p.44
"Animal experiments failed notoriously to demonstrate a smoking-cancer connection for over half a century...If the greatest killer of our time was promoted by physicians based on animal experiments, there is obviously something terminally wrong with the system."
Using the tobacco settlement for animal research is much worse than throwing it away. The only research that has helped victims of smoking related illness is human-based study. The relationship between tobacco and cancer was discovered through epidemiological studies (comparative studies of human populations).
Dr. Ray Greek, Sacred Cows and Golden Geese, p.144-145
"...all the useful evidence we have accumulated about cancer has come from human studies. The links between chemicals, x-rays, foods, and asbestos on the one hand and different types of cancer on the other hand were all obtained after doctors had studied human patients. Instead of helping, animal experiments have consistently slowed down the speed with which these essential discoveries have been accepted.
"For example, the link between tobacco smoke and cancer was spotted decades ago by doctors working with human patients, but animal experiments were used as an excuse by politicians who wanted to avoid taking action against (and therefore annoying) the wealthy tobacco companies. Researchers spent decades making beagles smoke cigarettes and painting tobacco tar of the backs of mice in attempts to establish a laboratory link between tobacco and cancer - a link which was not needed since links clearly existed between tobacco and human cancer. The decades of vague and inconclusive results gave the tobacco companies a chance to keep the confusion going and to prevent doctors giving their patients authoritative warnings about smoking tobacco. Doctors knew that cigarettes caused cancer but were encouraged to keep quiet while animal researchers spent years failing (quite predictably) to obtain any conclusive results."
In 2003, budget woes were cited when legislators discontinued the very successful Tobacco Prevention and Education Program in order to recoup the remaining $4 million back to Oregon's General Fund. According to Roy Dancer, the Chairman of the Tobacco-Free Coalition of Beaverton, "The success of the program since 1997 has been dramatic: Overall cigarette consumption is down 30 percent, with 25,000 fewer youth smokers and 75,000 fewer adult smokers. This translates into medical costs savings of $40 million a year, $10 million of that being Oregon Health Plan costs." Because of public outcry, the program was later restored but with only on quarter of its former budget.
"For example, the link between tobacco smoke and cancer was spotted decades ago by doctors working with human patients, but animal experiments were used as an excuse by politicians who wanted to avoid taking action against (and therefore annoying) the wealthy tobacco companies. Researchers spent decades making beagles smoke cigarettes and painting tobacco tar of the backs of mice in attempts to establish a laboratory link between tobacco and cancer - a link which was not needed since links clearly existed between tobacco and human cancer. The decades of vague and inconclusive results gave the tobacco companies a chance to keep the confusion going and to prevent doctors giving their patients authoritative warnings about smoking tobacco. Doctors knew that cigarettes caused cancer but were encouraged to keep quiet while animal researchers spent years failing (quite predictably) to obtain any conclusive results."
Dr. Vernon Coleman, Why Animal Experiments Must Stop, p.73-74
"To my knowledge, it's not been proven that cigarette smoking causes cancer...I base that on the fact traditionally, there is, you know, in scientific terms, there are hurdles related to causation, and at this time there is no evidence that they have been able to reproduce cancer in animals from cigarette smoking."
OHSU has chosen to ignore the well-documented futility of animal research in studying the effects of smoking. Since 1978, Eliot Spindel of the OHSU's primate center has been conducting nicotine studies on rhesus monkeys. Originally he was injecting pregnant monkeys with nicotine, and studying the effects on lung development in the fetuses. Over time he has made small changes to the study in order to keep the funding going. In 2000 he began allowing the fetuses to go full term and then killing the babies at different developmental stages to study their lung development. According to former Animal Care and Use Committee member Matt Rossell, this study was given rubber stamp approval by the committee, not because it has contributed anything to human health but because it looked in line with what Spindell had previously been doing.
In 1972 human epidemiological studies confirmed that smoking causes fetal abnormalities.
While programs that help people quit smoking are cut and countless pregnant women cannot get prenatal care, Spindel's useless study (spindel abstract) continues. In 2000-2003 alone, Spindel was awarded $2,170,409 in NIH grants, along with funds from the primate center's base grants ($27,561,038) to investigate in animals the specifics of disorders that can be prevented in humans.
- quoted in the New York Times, December 1993. Greek and Greek, Specious Science p. 83, quoting William Campbell, president and CEO of Phillip Morris, testifying in 1993
From www.boycottohsu.com:
Nicotine May Speed Lung Cancer Growth...(Duh!)
News Flash: People with lung cancer shouldn't smoke...
(and how many monkeys did you kill for that one Eliot?!)LONDON (Reuters) - Nicotine in cigarettes not only causes cancer, it may also speed up the growth of existing tumors. Research by scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton suggests that nicotine stimulates the production of a molecule that can make lung cancer cells more aggressive and encourages them to divide and grow. "Smoking may boost the growth of existing tumors as well as triggering cancer," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday. The molecule, called acetylcholine, is a neurotransmitter, or message-carrying chemical, in the brain and nerves. Eliot Spindel and his colleagues found that some cancerous cells have receptors, or molecular doorways into cells, for the molecule. They also discovered that fast-growing cells make large amounts of the molecule and have a feedback loop so that the acetylcholine they make encourages them to divide and grow. But when the scientists cut the loop by blocking the receptors with the nerve gas antidote atropine the cells stopped growing. "Our discovery reveals the little extra push by nicotine," said Spindel, who reported his research in the journal Life Sciences. He believes it may be possible, though not easy, to adapt drugs such as atropine to treat lung cancer but added that the correct dose and making sure it doesn't affect the nervous system would be crucial. "This loop can be revved up by smoking," Spindel said, "so there's no question that not smoking is the best thing you can do."
News Flash: People with lung cancer shouldn't smoke...
(and how many monkeys did you kill for that one Eliot?!)LONDON (Reuters) - Nicotine in cigarettes not only causes cancer, it may also speed up the growth of existing tumors. Research by scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton suggests that nicotine stimulates the production of a molecule that can make lung cancer cells more aggressive and encourages them to divide and grow. "Smoking may boost the growth of existing tumors as well as triggering cancer," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday. The molecule, called acetylcholine, is a neurotransmitter, or message-carrying chemical, in the brain and nerves. Eliot Spindel and his colleagues found that some cancerous cells have receptors, or molecular doorways into cells, for the molecule. They also discovered that fast-growing cells make large amounts of the molecule and have a feedback loop so that the acetylcholine they make encourages them to divide and grow. But when the scientists cut the loop by blocking the receptors with the nerve gas antidote atropine the cells stopped growing. "Our discovery reveals the little extra push by nicotine," said Spindel, who reported his research in the journal Life Sciences. He believes it may be possible, though not easy, to adapt drugs such as atropine to treat lung cancer but added that the correct dose and making sure it doesn't affect the nervous system would be crucial. "This loop can be revved up by smoking," Spindel said, "so there's no question that not smoking is the best thing you can do."