Tobacco Documents Online

S-.~ ~Y.V..~ . !~.~.~. ~" trguard . . .......21 ; , American Air Filter ..... 22 American Environmental Services .............. 23 Analytical Services ...... 24 Atlantic Engineering . . . .25 BBJ Chemical Compound ......,.....26 Cameron Yakima ....... 27 Enviro Team ............ 28 Group ................29 EOHSI ............. .30 Fan(ech ............... 31 G Controls ............ 32 Gollum International . .-. :33 Instrument Technology.. . .35 K D Engineering . . . . . . .36 Kleen Air Company . . . . .37 Mid Atlantic Environmental Hygiene Resource Center ............... 38 Mycotech B iological . .. .39 PathCon Laboratories .... 0 Environrnenta) Dynamics , P'owerVac ............. 1 Purafil ............... 42 REM ................ 43 Rotobrush . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Service-Tech ..........45 Taitem Engineering . . . . .46 Telaire Systems ........ 47 TSI Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48" Wintclean Air ......... .49 trSIMAeZvtr ... ` : ~ econc~l~ and~-~ Smoke Report :y :'~- . : louds Health Debate .~:: ..~, Tobacco "Avcic.ates , :;Foes Both Invoke Inconclusive Results . By Dan Giosta Both sides of the contentious smoking ; debate are using a new report by the:~: Congressional Research Service (CRS) ` to support their respective positions.'fhe study-ooncluded that the health risks from environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) re- : main hazy. . The ieport, an extensive review of lit-erature on ETS and lung cancer risk, lndi- ' 'cates that the danger of developing lung , cancer appears to increase as lime-and quantity of exposure increases. " "While there is evidence of an upward ' dose response trend, the results are not ;_. definitive;' the report said: "And even at '. the greatest integrated exposurelevels,the measured risks are still subject to uncer- . - tainty." a The report, "Environmental lbbacco 't Smoke and Lung Cancer Risk;' said fac-!` tors other than ETS •proved to be major sources of uncertainty for interpreting re- sults. These confounders included mea- sured risk values and nusclassification. "[T]hesz simutatec(.calculations indi- cate that misclassificalion can be a potent uncertainty in these FSTS studies, and could account for the measurqfitrisk Walues;'the report said. "Further research. on this is- sue appears called for:' Previous studies ideqtit`iod cu.ncent . • .~ See CRS Report, page 15

~ ~ No " ~M Ml " M 10 JANVnttY 1996 • INDOOtI f1.IIl RI'syIH1Y 15 CRS Report Corrtnaued ffom page 2 smokers or those who recently quit as nev- er having smoked (smoker misclassilica- tion), identifyied a person as exposed to ETS because a spouse smoked when In reality she was not subject to any expo- sure (exposure misclassification), and un- der-"or over-estimated th,e amount of Is I'S exposure (necall. bias), according to the re- port, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) may choose to make substantial revisions to its IsTS risk assessment before releasing its proposed indoor air quality rule, the neport said. "Independent scientists and tobacco in- dustry researchers and consultants have . submitted now data and analyses to the agency for possible inclusion in a revised risk assessment;' CRS said. EPA routinely warns against the dan- geis of secondhand smoke, claiming it in- creases risk for cancer, pneumonia and btonchitis.'[]ie failure of the report to reach a defmitive conclusion has opened the win- dow for both pro-tobacco and anti-tobac- co members of Congress to quote from it. Lawntakers Defend Positions "This report from CRS - considered a nonpartisan and objective organization - shows that there is absolutely no scien- tifcc justification for smoking bans or de- facto bans like the proposed ruie coming out of OSHA;' Sen. Wendell Ford, D-Ky., said,Mese bureaucratic agencies are only pursuing an agenda to punish citizens who exercise the personal right to smoke." Ford contends the CRS report calls into question claims by the EPA and OSHA on the dangers of secondhand smoke, The re- port refutes EPA's assertion that there is. no safe level of ETS, Ford said. ''A According to its independent study, CRS finds Ihat theonly reasonablechanee . of risk comes in 'extreme situationsI and even those cases are in need of more sci- entific research, Ford said. He called upon OSHA to reopen hearings on proposed smoking bans. "lhere is no scientific evidence for their agenda, and I think it's time to rethink these proposed-rutes on workplace and public smoking' Ford said,' ;tI'he proposals will , cQst billions to implement and will provide little, if any, benefit to the public. For months they have manipulated data to make their case, but now we find that data simply is not there ". * Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., a to- baccofoe,said the study confimis that ETS is a human carcinogen and indicates that secondhand smoke may cause up to 5,500 lung cancerdeaths each year." he said. Waxman said the threshold modzl ad- vocated by the tobacco industry and used in the CRS study, determined that EI'S will- remain a significant soiirce of lung cancer in nonsmokers, causing between 440 and 530 lung cancer deaths each year. Advocacy Groups Respond The CRS report noted areas where fur- ther research might be important and some uncertaitities in making precise estimates of relative risk and number of annual deaths. Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) determined the report had reached I New"sline Conlinued from'page 11 developed when the dysfunctional elec- h+o-static system caused excessive drip- ping,generating drip pan overflow, which posed a serious threat to many of the ar- ticles in the birthplace that are irreplace- able antiques. "I kept thinking that if the pan over- Howed, it would cause structural damage," said Daron Dyer, who at the time was a ser- _::vice 'technician for Allied- Plumbing Heating & Air Conditioning, Placentia, Become a Leader in the Meohanica the conclusion that secondhand tobacco smoke causes high levels of cancers and cancer deaths in nonsmokers. The group said the CRS conclusions appear to justify regulation of secondhand smoke under geu- eraily accepted governmentai regulatory standards. "Although the CRS report is flawed in many ways - including the unwarranted assumption that there is a threshold level - it nevertheless demonstrates that even under the assumptions most favorable to the tobacco industry, tobacco must be reg- ulated like any other proven human.car- cinogen;" said John Eanzh,af,ASH's ex- eeutive disector. The anti-smoking group says that de- spite its faults, the CRS reporl did not re- fute the basic conclusion for all previous studies: tobacco smoke causes cancer in nonsmokers. Th®Tobacco Institute said the report raises serious issues about reports by EPA and OSHA that advocate antismoking mea- sures. 'CRS repeatedly notes instances of substantial uncertainties and unverified as- sumptions that call into question those agencies' handling of ETS- issues," spokesman Tom Lauria said. Calif., who was called in to investigate the malfunctioning cooling system. Dyer found that lack of airflow was causing the coil, located in the attic of the historic building, to ice up, and there was evidence of water damage around the drain pan under the unit. The solution to the prob- lem was to install a new high-efTiciency air cleaning system that improved the airqual- ity immediately. _ 'Ibe new system was able to lessen the amount of interior dust, reducing sinus and headache discomfort, as well as eliminat- ing the drip pan overflow. Hygiene Industr 99MMOZ