The Cost of Inhaling

Depth of inhaling is tied to the death rate among smokers even more closely than the amount of tobacco smoked, says the statistician who most tirelessly pursues the correlation between smoking and disease.

The American Cancer Society's Edward Cuyler Hammond was among the first to show a statistical link between smoking and lung cancer. Partly under him and partly under others, statistics have narrowed the presumed cause from smoking in general to cigarette smoking to heavy cigarette smoking. Meanwhile, statistics amplified the effects to include not merely lung cancer, but even more important (in number of deaths ), heart and circulatory diseases--plus other pulmonary diseases and cancers of the mouth and throat. With this much to go on, Hammond hypothesized that the amount of smoke to get into the lungs was a critical factor, and two years ago decided to include this in the Cancer Society's biggest survey yet (with questions on environment, heredity, diet and drinking habits).

Last week at a meeting of the International Statistical Institute in Paris.

Hammond reported preliminary results. His researchers, he said, had questioned 382,000 U.S. men between 45 and 79, asked them whether they smoked, and if so, how much they inhaled. Then, after 4,331 deaths had occurred in the study group, the researchers analyzed mortality figures. Compared with those who never smoke cigarettes, mortality from all causes was 53% higher among those who inhaled "slightly" and 81% higher among those who inhaled ''moderately." The death rate among those who inhaled ''deeply" was more than double that of nonsmokers.

Dr. Joseph Berkson, an M.D. and professor of statistics at the Mayo Foundation, rose the next day to proclaim his doubts about Hammond's case. ''We still need to know very much more about the background, environment, diet and medical history for victims of all diseases." he said.

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