sample="rhetorical" bates="TIMN0100637" isource="rjr" decade="1970" class="ui" date="" After millions of dollars of research: The question about smoking and health is still a question. Hundreds of scientists have performed thousands of experiments and written millions fo words to explore the question fo smoking and health. Many of them believe that years more of exhaustive effort will be required to clear up what is indeed now a muddied picture. Even those who claim a cause-and-effect relationship admit that no particular ingredient, as it exists in cigarette smoke, has been demonstrated to cause any particular disease. And, while not widely publicized, there are eminent scientists who question whether any causal relationship has been established. Voluntary health associations and U.S. Government departments help support smoking and health research with public funds. But the tobacco industry itself is financing a larger portion of such work than any of them. In the interest of absolute objectivity, the tobacco industry has supported totally independent research with completely non-restrictive funding. Its funds are distributed by committees of eminent scientist and physicians who retain their affiliations with universities and institutions. Each researcher receiving a grant has complete freedom to public the results of his work, whatever they may be. This program began 17 years ago, a decade before the widely publicized Surgeon General's report on smoking and health. Nearly 600 separate research grants have been made to scientists in more than 200 medical schools, hospitals and other institutions in the U.S. and abroad, resulting in publication of more than 1,100 scientific papers in the professional literature. In addition, the tobacco industry has this year funded a $2 million project at Washington University, under the direction of a brilliant research team, to investigate possible immunization against cancer. This is tobacco industry's largest single grant to date, and the project may expand significantly man's limited knowledge of cancer. The tobacco industry stands ready to make new commitments for additional valid research. It believes that persons who enjoy its products deserve objective scientific answers about smoking and health. These facts and statements are presented by The Tobacco Institute in the belief that the many controversial questions concerning smoking and health must ultimately be answered by further scientific research and new knowledge -- and that full, free, and informed public discussion is essential in the public interest. For further information, we invite you to read "The Cigarette Controversy." Write to: The Tobacco Institute, 1776 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006 As Reprinted From The John F. Kennedy Center Program/Magazine -- September, 1971