Risks Of Lung Cancer In Smokers Who Switch To Filter Cigarettes.

THE difficulties that our technological Tsocieties have in dealing effectively with the adverse side-effects of the products of technology are well exemplified by our efforts to control the health hazards of cigarettes. For more than 12 years the evidence has been incontrovertible that cigarette smoking is one of the major public health problems of our era. A number of different technological means are available for the control of cigarette hazards. One technological mean is the use of filter tips to reduce the amount of tar and nicotine in the smoke. But progress along this and other lines has been held up by continuing controversies over whether the dangers to human beings are actually reduced by any of these methods. The recent criticism of Columbia University for sponsoring a new filter' is one example of these controversies. Ironically enough, the one point on which spokesmen for health agencies and the tobacco industry agreed was that there was a dearth of factual evidence on the effectiveness of filters in controlling human health hazards. Surveillance System