Ernst L. Wynder

Ernst L. Wynder, M.D. was an epidemiologist at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and was a pioneer in researching the link between tobacco and disease. He was one of the first scientists to report in 1950 on the carginocencity of cigarette "tar" (smoke condensate) in rats whose skin was painted with cigarette "tar." He was an assistant at Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and directed the American Health Foundation (AHF) from 1984 until his death in 1998.

= Biography =

Ernst Wynder was born in Herford, Germany. His family emigrated to New Jersey in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution. He attended medical school at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, and received both a bachelor of science and a medical degree in 1950. Wynder began his lung cancer investigations when he was a medical student. While attending a summer internship at New York University, his curiosity was piqued during the autopsy of a two-pack-a-day smoker who had died from lung cancer. Wynder began collecting case histories of lung cancer victims, first in New York City and then in St. Louis. His research brought him to thoracic surgeon Evarts Graham, who, despite initial skepticism about Wynder's premise (Graham was a heavy smoker), granted access to his extensive case records, and agreed to sponsor the medical student.

Ernst Wynder was President and Founder of the American Health Foundation and the Sloan-Kettering, Naylor-Dana Institute. (PMI's Introduction to Privilege Log and Glossary of Names, Estate of Burl Butler v. PMI, et al, April 19, 1996). Wynder was a pioneer researcher in the field of tobacco and disease.(E. Whelan 1984) Wynder was a scientist at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and was the first scientist to paint a cigarette-smoke condensate on the backs of mice and produce tumors, per Marc Edell. Jenkins, pp. 184, 192; WSJ 2/11/93) He was a medical student under Dr. Evarts A. Graham at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri in 1949.(E. Whelan 1984)  He was also president and director of the American Health Foundation in 1984.(E. Whelan 1984; UPI 1/12/84)

Dr. Ernst Wynder and Dr. Evarts Graham published the results of the first large-scale research on smoking in the May 7, 1950 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, titled "Tobacco Smoking as a Possible Etiologic Factor in Bronchiogenic Carcinoma." He concluded that "excessive and prolonged use of tobacco, especially cigarettes, seems to be an important factor in the induction of bronchiogenic carcinoma."(E. Whelan 1984) The study found that of 605 men with lung cancer, 96.5 percent were smokers. In the control group (men without lung cancer) only 73.7 percent were smokers, and the authors concluded that "Excessive and prolonged use of tobacco . . . especially cigarettes, seems to be an important factor in the induction of bronchogenic carcinoma."(L. White, Merchants of Death: The American Tobacco Industry 1988).

At the December 3, 1953 Greater New York Dental Meeting, Dr. Ernst Wynder reported that more than 5,000 lung cancer patients had been studied in England, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and the U.S. and that all of them had the same condition: "The prolonged and heavy use of cigarettes increases the risk of developing cancer of the lung."(L. White, Merchants 1988).

Tobacco industry documents reveal that Philip Morris worked for form 1955 to 1995 to try and influence and manipulate Dr. Wynder through large equipment loans and grants. Wynder did accept money and assistance from the company without revealing it, however.