ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996            TAG: 9610230073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-5  EDITION: METRO 

IN THE NATION

Cigarette cleanup urged 38 years ago

WASHINGTON - Although researchers didn't establish the molecular link between a cigarette chemical and lung cancer until last week, newly uncovered documents show a top Philip Morris scientist argued 38 years ago to remove the suspected carcinogen from Marlboros, or at least reduce it.

The memos by J.E. Lincoln, who later became Philip Morris' vice president for research, are careful not to say tobacco scientists think the chemical benzopyrene had actually injured smokers.

But, in an April 1958 memo, Lincoln argued: ``This compound must be removed from Marlboro and Parliament or sharply reduced. We do this not because we think it is harmful, but simply because those who are in a better position to know than ourselves suspect it may be harmful.''

Lincoln tried again four months later, arguing ``that law and morality coincided.''

The documents were filed as part of Mississippi's lawsuit seeking to force the tobacco industry to reimburse the state for the Medicaid costs of caring for sick smokers.

- Associated Press

Study links nicotine, Alzheimer's plaque

WASHINGTON - Nicotine is able to prevent the formation, in test tubes, of an abnormal brain cell plaque that is found in Alzheimer's patients, a study released Tuesday found.

But the researcher who did the study, which was sponsored in part by Philip Morris, a major cigarette maker, cautioned that the findings have not been tested on humans.

Researcher Michael G. Zagorski and a main Alzheimer's research group both warned people not to jump to the mistaken conclusion that smoking or other nicotine use lowers the risk of having Alzheimer's.

``It must be determined whether test tube findings reflect real events in human brains before we draw any conclusions from this study,'' cautioned the Alzheimer's Association, another sponsor of the report.

- Associated Press

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