Toxicological Sciences 67, 153 (2002)
Copyright © 2002 by the Society of Toxicology
Letter
New York Medical College Department of Pathology Valhalla, NY 10595 williamsgm{at}pol.net
To the Editor:
To the scholarly short history of lung cancer by Witschi (2001), I wish to add a noteworthy addendum. In a detailed paper, "Cancer and Smoking Habits," published in 1931 in a volume in honor of James Ewing, Frederick L. Hoffman, who was with the Prudential Insurance Company, presents compelling statistical associations between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Moreover, he notes that "cigarette smoking ... would not be the only factor ... for there may possibly be a connection with gross air pollution of large cities as the result of motor cars." Hoffman goes on to conclude that "smoking habits unquestionably increase the liability to cancer of the mouth, the throat, the esophagus, the larynx and the lungs." These observations preceded and, regrettably, have been largely ignored by many prominent workers in the field, to their advantage. Incidentally, Hoffman also was one of the first to implicate nutrition in the etiology of cancer (Hoffman, 1937
).
REFERENCES
Hoffman, F. L. (1931). Cancer and smoking habits. In Cancer, International Contribution to the Study of Cancer in Honor of James Ewing (F. E. Adair, Ed.), pp. 50–67. Lippincott, Philadelphia.
Hoffman, F. L. (1937). Cancer and Diet. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore.
Witschi, H. (2001). Profiles in Toxicology. A short history of lung cancer. Toxicol. Sci. 64, 4–6.
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