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Page 14 3RD STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format. Copyright 1991 News World Communications, Inc. The Washington Times April 19, 1991, Friday, Final Edition SECTION: Part A; NATION; Pg. A3 LENGTH: 567 words HEADLINE: EPA panel reports non-smokers at risk BYLINE: Ronald A. Taylor; THE WASHINGTON TIMES BODY Tobacco smoke is a cancer risk for non-smokers, especially the spouse and children of smokers, an advisory panel of scientists told the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday. "Environmental tobacco smoke," as the acrid-smelling sidestream from someone else's cigarette, cigar or pipe is called by health professionals, "should be classified as a class A carcinogen," concluded a science advisory board report to EPA Administrator William Reilly. The recommendation, approved in a unanimous vote of the board's executive committee, adds tobacco smoke to a list of nine other known cancer-causing pollutants that includes asbestos and benzene. Second-hand smoke produces lung cancer in adult non-smokers and respiratory ailments in children who share households with smokers, the panel said. Mr. Reilly is expected to use the panel's findings in guidance to be issued to state and federal agencies about workplace smoking policies. The agency's interest in the health effects of smoking stems from a statutory mandate to monitor indoor air quality. The EPA action is also likely to prod even tougher regulatory action being contemplated for private employers, said Doug Fuller, spokesman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. ~ The EPA panel's findings, along with the agency's risk assessment, "are C ~ going to be tremendously valuable to us in any regulatory activity," said Mr. ~ Fuller. ~ But the science panel did not endorse an EPA estimate last year linking C~t 00 second-hand smoke to 3,700 cases of lung cancer each year in non-smokers, said Dr. Morton Lippman. He chaired the science advisory board's indoor air quality committee effort on smoking. F-~ CC ~ Available cause-and-effect, or epidemiological, evidence is too weak to I.EXIS NEXIS7= 1,1@1 LEX1S a NEXIS®= == LEX1S NEXIS"= ' n # r'' tr 1 In(^

The Washington Times, April 19, 1991 Page 15 support that figure, the New York University Medical Center professor said. "We are not breaking new ground," he told reporters yesterday. The possibility of cancer from second-hand smoke is "a small added risk, probably much less than you took to get here through Washington traffic. "But you can choose that risk. You can't always make the choice about environmental tobacco smoke," he said. "We have been persuaded by the data that the 1986 surgeon general's report is correct." That report, the first federal warning of second-hand smoke's health effects, fanned then-fledgling public concern about second-hand smoke. The tobacco industry contends that the panel ignored studies of lung cancer in China that are inconclusive about the role of tobacco smoke in lung cancer among non-smoking Chinese women. Mr. Lippman said that those studies were not included in the studies analyzed by his committee. In addition, he said, the widespread use of coal stoves for home cooking means that Chinese women are exposed to excessive amounts of coal smoke, also a carcinogen. Yesterday's action adds momentum to the drive to end workplace tobacco consumption. The number of companies that have banned smoking rose from 25 percent in 1988 to 42 percent in 1989, according to Administrative Management Surveys, a private business consultant. According to a recent Bureau of National Affairs survey, smoking restrictions will be in place in 90 percent of the 50 biggest Fortune 500 companies by the end of the year. * Researchers David Alan Coia and John Haydon assisted in this report. ~.EXIS " NEXIS' =~ = LEXIS "NEXIS~=~ ~ LEXIS®NEXIS~= of Mead Data Central, Inc.