Smoking Blamed For Heart, Lung Disease

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29858, 26 June 1962, Page 13

Smoking Blamed For Heart, Lung Disease

(Ax Fress Association—Copyright) CHICAGO. June 25.

Deaths from heart disease, chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, influenza and other lung diseases were higher in cigarette smokers than in non-smokers, an American Cancer Society doctor said today.

The director of the statistical research section of the American Cancer Society. Dr E Cuyler Hammond, based his conclusions on autopsy examinations of lung tissue samples removed from 240 male, and two female patients who died at the Veterans' Hospital. East Orange. New Jersey, the Associated Press reported Associated with Dr Hammond was Dr. Oscar Aaerbech. senior medical investigator at the East Orange Hospital. He made the report in a paper prepared for a panel d scussion on smoking at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physic.ans. The lung samples showed a thickening, and some rupturing of the tissue, and a thickening of the walls of blood vessels Dr. Hammond said cigarette smokring produced changes in the lungs that s'rained the heart and aggravated heart ailments. "We are of the opinion that the relationship between cigarette smoking and death rates is due mainly, though not entirely, to the effects of cigarette smoke upon tissues of the lung,” Dr. Hammond said. Inhalation of Smoke "In this study, we have found that the inhalation of cigarette smoke can produce all the changes which are characteristic of pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema. We are of the opinion that this accounts for the fact that death rates from chrcnic bronchitis and from pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema are higher in cigarette smokers than in non-smokers. "It is well known that the diseases just mentioned

increase suceptibility to infectious diseases of the lungs. We are of the opinion that •his accounts for the fact that death rates for pneumonia, influenza, and other infectious diseases are higher in smokers than in nonsmokers.''

He said changes were caused m lung tissue that reduced the efficiency of the lungs to supply oxygen to the blood and to remove carbon dioxide from the blood. He said: "Since all the organs ot the body require oxygen, a reduction in oxygen supply may cause failure of a diseased organ. This could increase fatality rates in persons suffering from any one of a number of different chronic diseases.” Dr. Hammond said these lung changes placed an added burden on the heart because nicotine causes a temporary increase in heart rate. "We suggest that such conditions can resuit in the failure of the heart of a person whose coronary arteries are partially occluded by arteriosclerosis,” he said.