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"Moral Obligation." Half a year has passed since Britain's Dr. Harvey Graham (no kin to St. Louis' Graham) suggested that the tobacco companies should pay for the research to bring these things about (TIME, April 6). So far, no big cigarette maker in Britain and only one in the U.S. has made a major move toward financing such research. This U.S. company's funds filter through the Damon Runyon Memorial Cancer Fund to the N.Y.U. project.
Says Dr. Ochsner: "If the tobacco people are smart—as I am sure they are, because they have been enormously successful—they will support research to find out what the cancer-producing substance is, and then take steps to remove it." Dr. Evarts Graham: "The cigarette companies are trying to induce more cigarette smoking, particularly among the young . . . many of whom will become cancer victims 20 years or so from now . . . It is certainly the moral obligation and common sense on the part of the manufacturers to support research. If we here at Washington University had more funds, we could get along faster and perhaps arrive at satisfactory conclusions within a couple of years or so."
Meanwhile, what can the cigarette addict do? Dr. Ochsner's counsel: smoke no more than half a dozen cigarettes a day, and have a chest X-ray every six months (better yet, every three months) after age 40.