Tobacco Documents Online

Services of Mead Data Centfal, Ihc. 16V • 10TH!STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format. Copyright ('c) 1991 Newsday, Inc.; Newsday May 30, 1991, Thursday, HOME EDITION SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 3 Other Edition: Nassa~u and Suffolk Pg. 3', City Pg,. 5. LENGTH: 908 words HEADLINE: Igniting A Di'spute;. Passive smoking kills 53,000'y draft studly says BYLINE: Staff and Wire Reports PAGE 115 KEYWORD: COVER; ShIObKING; HEALTH; HA'ZARD;, SURVEY; STATISTICS; DEATH; CANCER; HEART; DISEASE; ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENiC'Y; REPORT; AIR' POLLUTI©N; BUSINESS'; INDUSTRY; RESTRICTION' BOD'Y : Secondhand cigarette smoke kills 53,000 non-smokers a year, including 37,000 from heart disease,, according to a draft report compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies. A final draft of the report was completed in April, according to letters the EPA sent to the report's authors, but it has not been made public pend'ing, further re'view, sai'd a topi agency offi'cial. Though no decision has been made on whether to release the report - a collection of chapters on the effects of secondhand smoke as researched by a variety of scientists - it has been at the center of an intense lobbying battle over the future of smoking,tobacco. The draft report is the latest battleground in a high-stakes tuig-of-war that began when the U.S surgeon general and the National Research Council, a s.cienti'fic body, linked passive smoke to lung cancer about five years ago. The tobacco industry rejected both repoirts and is fighting to pirevent any further restrictions on smoking. The EPA is expected to decide in the niextt few monthss whether to offi'cial1y classifyse~condhand, smoke as a, cancer-causing agent a, move~~ that would, for example, allow federal agencies to limit smoking in the work place. The report was intended toi be an iinformational document to be used by professionals in the field of indoor air pollution and passive simoking, accordling to the EPA. A copy was obtaiined by The Associated Press. "It's notdoneuntil all the agienciesarehappywith tt,°said Rbbeirt Axelrad, director, of'theEPVs, indborai!r division."Nbbody's si~tti~ng on it and nobody's holding it back." Axelrad saidlrelease of the report has been delayed whiile t'he report iis studiedi, he said,, adding that if the agency released the data, some people would assume the findiingswere suppoirtedi by the government. The agency emphasi'lzed thatt the death estimates in the draft report do not represent any official dleterminati~oni. Rather, the estimates, are the vilews of' scientific authoriti~es LEXISeNEXIS'LEXIS~NEXIS'

Servio¢s of Mead Data Central, Inc. (c) 19!91 Newsdaq, May 30, 1991 . qX_9 PAGE 16 the agencies commissioned to, write the report. Each chapter was reviewed for scientific accuiracy by at least two other scientists ouitsidie the agency. Axeirad said the draft "has not been approved by the EPA. It may never be approved by EPA," adding that the report I`May not be released with an EPA cover on it." He added that the report may be given to an independent Science Advisory Board for review an6 that "there's a very goodlchan!ce" that it would be released in some fashilon." Both opponents and partisans said they disagreed with the EPA decision not to release the report. "Government just doesn"t dare go the liimilt in challenging a big, financially powerful i'ndlustry," said' Dr. Alan Blum of Houston, chairman and founder of Doctors Ought to Care, an anti-smoking groupy accusing the agency of caving in to the tobacco indUstry.- The, EPA has also angered a congressional ally of the tobacco industry. Rep. Thomas J. BZiley Jr. (R!-Va.) said that two EPA officials in recent congressional testimony did not mention the existence of the report until Bliiley inquired. "Deliberately providing false information to Conigress, is a serious matter,," Fie sai~d~ in~ a letter to: the~ EPA~ on May 9~.~ "Il hope that i!s not what is~ going on here." Axelrad said he was formulating a reply to Bliiiley"s letter. In addition to the findings on heart disease, the report concludes that secondhand tobacco srnoke contribu!tes substantially to i'ndoor air pollution, increasilng airborne levels of pollutant particles and such dangerous substances as ben¢.ene andi carbon monoxide. A chapter on lung cancer says more research i's necessary toi understand how secondhand smoke causes diseasie,, but "existing scientific conclusions already prowidle ai compelling rationale for reducing involuntary exposure toi environmental tobacco smoke." But much of the controversy over the report has focusedl on theestiimate~ of 37,000 heart disease deaths attributed t'osecondhand smoke. That section was written by Stanton Glantz and Dr. Wi'lil!iami Parmley, chief of' cardiology, of the University of California, San Franci'sco. The researchers presented their findings at a, January, meeti'ing of the American Heart Association in Dallas. Basically, the scientists reviewed 110l epidemiological studies iinvolvi'ng the nonsmoking, spouses of smokers. Those who lived with smokers were 301 percent more lilkley, to suffer from from heart disease or heart attacks than those who lived in smoke-free households, they founid. Passive smoke increases the tendency of blood to clot, thereby raising, the chance for a heart attack, they said. The pair estimated that 37,000 would die from a heart attack; 3',700 would die from lung cancer and 12',000 others would be Killed by other cancers directly attributed'to passive smoke. Glantz "has been putting this forth since 1984," said Thomas Luria, a spokesman for the Tobacco Instiltuute. "We rejected it outright In 1984 and we ''' ' LEXISNEXISLEXISNEXIS

Services4t Mead Data Central; Inc. (c) 1991 Newsday,, May 30, 1991 qx,9 PAGE 1'7 reject it now." Lauria said passive smoke has never been shown to be harmful. The industry sent the EPA "boxloads of scientific documents and commentary fromi independent scientists from aroundl the world, pointingl out the weaknesses, the unsubstantiated claims" in the draft report, said Brennan Dawson, a, spokeswoman for the Tobacco Institute ini Washington. Axeirad said the EPA can't vouch for the accuracy of the death estimates. "That 37~ oir~ 5'3' numbe,~r~ maly, o~r~ may~ no~t~ be; ai reasonable, e5~timaite~~. We~ simply~~ havern "t~ reviewed the data," he said. GRAPHIC: Npwsday Color Cover Photo Illustration by W'. Richard Haro-non- smoker inhaling smoke from smoker's cigarette. Newsday Photo by Stan Hbnda-smoke fromm cigiarette filling the air LEXIS"NEXIS'LEXIS'NEXIS'