Tobacco Documents Online

COURIER-JOURNAL (9/8/78) ~~'anel told smoking not hurting non-smokers = I By ED RYAN Cwn.r-,lourn+l staN wra.r ~ WASHINGTON - A pathologist came om Pittsburgh. An anthropologist came rom the Harvard Medical School. A ~ edical researcher came from.Indiana . niversity. They were joined by professors from ~-anada, California and other far-flung locales yesterday to tell members of the he House tobacco subcommittee what hey wanted to hear: Tobacco smoke is not harmful to non- mokers. This news - unrefuted in more than three hours of testimony - was greeted gleefully at the Tobacco Institute, the trade association that represents the na- tion's major cigarette manufacturers. Horace R. Kornegay, president of the Tobacco Institute• issued this prepared statement after sitting through the hear- ings: "Congress has finally heard what so many of us have been convinced of for a long time - that tobacco smoke has not been shown to cause disease in people /~ ho do not smoke. f "'At long last, thanks to the hearings by me tobacco subcommittee of the United States Congress on Thursday. Sept. 7, the American people have heard the facts." At mid-afternoon yesterday, the To- bacco Institute sent out bulky packets to the media around town, with the full tes- timony, as well as sum.aaries of the tes- timony from each witness, an institute press release and its comments. However, the U.S. Office of Smoking and Health didn't hear of the tobacco subcommittee hearing until Wednesday. None of its representatives, nor any U.S. public health officers, was asked to testify or to present witnesses, according to John Pinney, director of the office. "We would have suggested a number of researchers to testify on the subject;" , s-td Pinney. A spokesman for the U.S. surgeon gen- eral said late yesterday that "there are significant medical implications in the breathing of cigarette smoke by non- smokers" who have chronic lung disease and other respiratory problems. The spokesman also said the Depart- ment of Health, Education and Welfare wasn't asked to appear at the subcom- mittee hearing. Rep. Walter B. Jones, D-N.C., is chair- man of the tobacco subcommittee, which is composed of seven tobacco- state congressmen and one member from Kansas. Rep. John Breckinridge, D-6th District, is the only Kentuckian on the subcommittee. In an opening statement at the hear- ing, Jones pointedly thanked Kornegay for the Tobacco Institute president's "ad- vice and assistance" in putting together a list of witnesses. (A Tobacco Instltute spokesman later said Kornegay was only involved in pro- viding the name of one witness.) Many of those who watched the hear- ings yesterday were lobbyists from the Tobacco Institute or representatives of the tobacco industry. At the last minute, the Office of Smok- ing and Health sent one representative to observe. The one witness that the Tobacco In- stitute said Kornegay recommended was Dr. Shetwin J. Feinhandler, the Harvard anthropologist, who urged "caution and deliberation" by the government in reg- ulating smokers' behavior. Feinhandler described the govern- ment's anti-smoking initlative as anti-so- clal. Other testimony included that of Dr. Edwin Fisher, the Pittsburgh pathologist who said public smoking restrictions are unjustified. Fisher said his review of scientific lit- erature on the issue shows a lack of in- formation "which would allow me to conclude that atmospheric tobacco smoke or its constltuents represent a health hazard in non-smokers." Dr. Theodor Sterling, a Canadian envi- ronmental scientist, testified that tobac- co smoke is "a minor and often insignifi- cant contributor" to air contaminants. Dr. Suzanne B. Knoebel, the Indiana University medical researcher, told the subcommittee there is no proof that at- mospheric tobacco smoke can cause cir- culatory illness among non-smokers. At the conclusion of the hearing, Rep. Jones noted that much of the testimony Rule would still represented "unassailable scientific facts" about the absence of harmful ef- fects of tobacco smoke on the notumok- er. Kornegay, a former North Carolina congressman, emphasized that "this evi- dence should provide some common sense to the cont: oversy ... It should put an end to efforts to make smokers social outcasts." At the Office of Smoking and Health, Pinney noted that "this is a very com- plex question that can't be handled with a one-day hearing and nine witnesses." . allow smoking on planes - but only in the back By ED RYAN _ caor1.rvJeurn.1 st.e wr8.r WASHINGTON - Cigar and pipe smokers can continue to puff away in airplanes. But they will have to move to the back of the plane. That was the outcome of a rather confusing session yesterday of the Civil Aeronautics Board. The board, which regulates the air- line industry, informally agreed to re- quire air passengers smoking pipes and cigars to be seated as far awav from non-smoking passengers as possible. A formal vote on the matter won't come for several days - until the three current CAB members read final drafts of the proposal. In effect, the board set aside a pro- posed regulation to ban cigar and pipe smoking In airplanes. This had been proposed two years ago by an indepen- dent group called Action on S:noking and Health. CAB member Richard O'Melia sug- gested that any consideration of such a ban be dropped until two board vacan- cies are filled. Chairman Alfred Kahn and board member Elizabeth Bailey agreed with O'Melia. The vacancies may not be filled for several months. The Tobacco Institute, lobby for to- bacco manufacturers, and tobacco-state congressmen had opposed the proposeQ ban. „ In its informal actions yesterday, the CAB also agreed that airlines must guar- antee non-smoking section seats for all passengers who seek them; and that non-smokers can't be "sandwiched" be- tween smokers. These rules already have been fol- lowed by most airlines, a CAB spokes- man noted. The new CAB regulatlons also would exempt commerical aircraft with 30 seats or less from the non-smoking regu- lations. { U ~

ti ,+ I C3738979 ~