Tobacco Documents Online

Nove2Lber 10-, 1993 6:•30-7s00 PN(ET) ABC-TV World News Tonight Peter.Jennings, anchor: We've another medical report tonight on the dangers of smoking. A study in i the Jouraal ot •tb. Jlserican Medical Association says that in 19s0, tobacco was the biggest underlying cause of death in the Onited Statas, responsible for four hundred thousand deaths. By underlying, they mean going beyond the iaediata illnesses such as cancer or heart disease. to• find out why peopls became sick in th. first place. TobOoco, said the researchers, caused more deaths tbaa druqs, guns, risky sex, and auto accidents combined. . . . . _ . ~cont'd)

•''ar.t'dl - 12f - Well, there does sees to be a qrowi.nq public acceptance of the fact that smokinq is deadly. The sentiment, however, is only beginning to catch on in tobacco country itself. ABC's Al Dale is in North Carolina. Al Dale reporting: In much on North Carolina, smoking is not just tolerated, it is appreciated. Fonr hundred thousand jobs depend on tobacco, the statefs number oae cash cropi and efforts to restrict smoking oftan most with undisquised:hostility. Unidentified Woman: Tobacco pays my bills. I would not go to a restaurant that you could not smoka at. Dale: I look around. I don't see a no-smokinq section. Qnide»tified Man: we have one. It'-s outside. Dale:- But in the past few months, things bava begun to change. More. than half of the stste6s ona hundr~l counties have adopted * some f orm of. saroking restrictions, torcing••people outside to indulge their habit. The flurry of regulations resulted from a new state law. This summer the state leqislaturs passed a relatively mild smokinq law that,in etlact, quaranteed s=okers at least twenty percent of the spaca in all public buildings. But the state left the door open for local goverrsa4 nts to go furthar in proteCtinq noA- smokers. from r.ecor-d-hand smoke. In Greensboro, whera the Lorilard Tobacco Company is a major employer, the county health dapartaant adopted- rules that will ban 'saokinq in public plaoes by the-end of next year. That outraged many people, includinq county commissioners who say they will replace iusti-smokinq members of the health board. Joe Wood.( County Commissioner): The health board failed to look *at this from an economic standpoitYt as wall as a public health standpoint. Dale: to it's likely that the requlatiotu will be rescinded before goinq into effect. That would please a lot of people here who say that smokinq is not haraful. Radio. Show Call-In: I donIt believa that.seaond-baad smoke- stuff.. Brad, Krantz (Talk Show Host)t You don't believa it? Callsr:.Nab. Rrantz=. Welcome to North -Carolina. welcome to liorth Carolina, where lunq cancer is not a medical tact; it's an opinion. Dale: But all across the state, qv4n die-hard smokers admit tlrat : restrictions are coming, but not without a Zight. Al.Dale; ABC News, Greensboro, North Carolina. # f #