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CONFIDENTIAL MINNESOTA TOBACCO LITIGATION TFE TOBACCO IivSTITUTE 1873 1 STREET. NORTHWEST WASHINGTON. DC 20006 202/457-4830 August 14, 1980 Mr. Charles T. Marck Dow Chemical - USA 1800 M Street, Northwest Washington, D. C. 20036_ Dear Chuck: 0(2505 HORACE R. KO&'VEGAY President y I am writing to you to express concern and disappointment about statements coming from various sources and publications at Dow concerning cigarette smoking and lung cancer, and am particularly distressed by the failure of the Dow people to respond to earlier communications from us, While assertions about the lung cancer problem have occurred on several occasions that I know of, a current Dow publication seems to be the worst offender in that, among other things, it forecasts U. S. lung cancer deaths at a levell of one million or more per year. Since the current level of lung cancer is below 100,000, the forecast is absurd and,.speaking from some familiar- ity with the controversy, I-can pretty wall'assure you'that Dow - is the sole author of such a prediction. This statement appears in "A Challenge to Fear" which, as you probably know, is being offered free to readers- of Dow advertising in recent editions of popular publications. Last March we urged Mr. Ellis Brandt in Midland to bring the matter to the attention of the responsible officers at Dow with the hope that the booklet might be withdrawn because of its errors. There was no response. An important common ground between your industry and ours is that we each face any number of accusations about the dangers of our products. In fact, we are confronted with a bewildering number of such suggestions pertaining not only to products but to occupational hazards, lifestyle hazards and dietary hazards as well. Often the primary basis for attack is a reported statistical association. TIMN 0065657

CONF'IDENTIAL MINNESOTA TOBACCO LITIGATION Mr. Charles T. Marck Page Two As you may be aware, a statistical association does not establish a cause and effect relationship. We are certainly aware of this and have not claimed that statistical associations between chemical products and disease, for example, demonstrate such a relationship. Perhaps you are in a position to report our concern to your associates so that a more-judicious view of these disease causation questions might be expressed in the future and so that any current and unsupportable expressions would be discontinued. xc: Mr. Jack Mills The Tobacco Institute Horace R. Kornegay President The Tobacco Institute TIMN 0065658