Tobacco Institute
Report on Public Smoking Issue Executive Committee April 10, 1985
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THIRD DRAFT
CONFIDENT:[AL:
MINNESOTA TOBACCO LITIGATION
REPORT ON PUBLIC SMOKING ISSUE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
APRIL 10, 1985
WILLIAM KLOEPFER, JR.
(CBS tape)
The nonsmoker battle for smoke-free air -- more complicated
than fire safety, more damaging than restrictions and a greater
bottom-line threat than excises. A battle in a society that has
conquered man's environment and in which, paradoxically, our fear
of it is growing. The logical appeal of smoke-free air is
irresistable to politicians, commentators, even some smokers. It
is the most effective way to reduce smoking.~We are defending two
fronts -- political regulation and private rulemaking. We are
fighting legislation, we are confronting research by regulatory
agencies such as FAA and EPA. Indoor air quality is a buzz phrase
in a dozen other agencies which we must monitor. Workplace
restrictions grind on in their course. The focus is dangerously
narrow: ambient smoke. Some of our retaliation is working. Some
is in the pipeline. We have only begun, however, to take the
decisions, make the commitments and exploit the opportunities that
ovc*~
can win this battle 6o-r the basic social acceptability of smoking.
The invaders employ an offshore battery of scientific
research findings and an air cover of socio-economic incentives.
We seem to be trying to protect a population without a popular
will to join the resistance.
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On the other hand, the roadblocks we've thrown up and the
skirmishes we've won are not without significance. Nearly two
years ago, we laid out a plan to blunt the socio-economic attacks
and we are solidifying that defense. If you were the owners or
managers of some other business, it is likely you would be
confronted on one side by anti-smokers and on the other by
employees and customers who smoke. It is likely that smoking
restrictions would seem to be a good idea for reasons put forth
repeatedly by the anti-smokers.
First, they argue, restrictions save money. Weis, Kristein
and others teach you that employees who smoke cost more in
insurance and productivity.
To that we have developed effective rejoinders, proven
commodities on line.
o An immediate task for us is to tune up Lew Solmon's volume --
indeed to clone him -- following the_excellent job he has
done countering Weis, in journals, in the public media, in
meetings with business officials and in two legislat:ive
hearings where he has been placed by the State Activities
staff. We've already begun to prep the 40-plus economists we
originally lined up on the excise issue to make expert
pitches on this one.
o Imminent publication in "Management World," which we:
engineered)of our Response Analysis Corporation survey, will
give us a new round of reprint circulation. That'~_~.-
demonstrates that
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managers and shop stewards in six different industries and in
public agencies believe that smoking has little if any effect
on productivity. We've already shared the report with 60
business and professional publications, and widely
distributed it to business, labor and public officials.
o We've mapped out our first hits for our Environetics study
which shows that professional planners see no way to promote
productivity by restricting workplace smoking: Planning
journals like "Interior Design." Presentations and a video
s ~,c.+~ . r.c. : .~......-.,..~..v.... _~
display -wreir.me at planning conventions and seminars,.~
o Every new study showing the negative effects of smoking
restrictions on local economies will be exploited at
lobbyist direction. Those we've done in New York City,
Montgomery County, Maryland, Philadelphia and elsewhere,
have been presented this way to public officials and
discussed with the media in each instance.
o We're ready to cry to replicate occasional independent
studies that support our point of view. The one from the
University of Minnesota last year got national publicity and
helps us refute the claim that smokers are less productive.
Our lobbyists and other consultants keep flashing it:. It's
ideal for a repeat in Washington statex Mr. Weis' home turf.
The anti-smokers' second argument is the right to breathe
smoke-free air. A number of our initiatives have helped to
neutralize its effect.
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o In litigation, we gave,the anti-smokers a public relations
and legal beating when they tried to force a 19-year employee
of the Wisconsin Department of Revenue to stop smoking a pipe
or face termination.
o Early on a Federal judge assured us there is nothing in the
Constitution that promises a smoke-free environment. But the
American Association of Affirmative Action Officers 'believes
that smoking restrictions can be used to deny minorities
constitutional rights to employment and promotions. We are
working with that group to raise that important point. An
American Civil Liberties Union committee will study smoker
employment discrimination. With help from Philip Morris
we've opened the door to our input. ACLU has assured us it
will be welcome.
o The same issue has led us to potential allies in black,
hispanic, veterans and women's groups. Hispanic lobbyists
are experienced in successful attacks on -o4abit"-limitations
in public safety employment on behalf of their constituents
who don't meet minimums. We've sensitized the hispanics to
smoker discrimination and Pete Sparber is in California today
negotiating resolutions from them opposing it. We're not as
far along with other minorities but we're determined. to get
there.
o We've helped labor find legal problems with smoking
restriction edicts. The American Federation of Government
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Employees, various fire fighters locals and state labor
federations are opposed to unilateral impositions. As a
follow-up to our labor-management committee seminar in
February, eight states are targeted for field staff
non-tobacco union collaboration in lobbying -- New York,
Massachusetts, Florida, Washington, Minnesota, Michigan,
Texas and California.
o The law enforcement community has expressed concern that
frivolous legislation makes a mockery of the law, diverts
resources and hurts police morale. The Internationa:l Union
of Police Associations helped us with S.B. 80 in Wisconsin
and right now is finishing a position paper which will enable
them to supply witnesses where Roger Mozingo needs them. The
prestigious Police Executive Research Forum is not a lobby,
r .
'r"ar~fCM~lv: .
but their~policy recommendations are going to carry great
weight in broadening our police support.
CNS~':P.T Tc COrc 2e.VE~ ~oG.rC'~ i-?,.s'."' .,- : r* ::~~f
The final, socio-economic argument the anti-smokers make is
the bandwagon techniqu t! Tell~them "everyone is doing it."
n
,/
We now know their numbers are dead wrong, but as far back as
1979 the National Interagency Council on Smoking and Health
started saying and they're still saying a majority of Fortune 500
companies restrict smoking.
o Lew Solmon's research has just told us that among the 1,100
largzst or fastest-growing companies, just over 30 percent
say they have some restriction. That number includes places
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that simply restrict smoking on elevators, in food processing
operations or near gasoline pumps, and facilities required to
restrict smoking by law. Of the 30 percent, less than
three percent say they prohibit smoking altogether, and less
than 13 percent maintain separate sections in the workplace.
o About 25 percent say they have considered and rejected
restrictions because they prefer to let their employees work
things out for themselves.
0 99.1 percent do not prohibit hiring of smokers. More than 85
percent have never considered doing that.
Our present schedule is to have Solmon's full report in time
for a mid-May news conference disclosure. Yet, despite what it
shows, these businesses are under pressure. The trend is towards
restrictions. The bandwagon is not yet rolling down tobacco road.
But at least we are slowing it down with these
implementations of our plan. That is not yet the case with the
other half of the issue: health.
The anti-smokers have just one argument: cigarette smoke is
dangerous. It's a physical assault.
We say no one knows if cigarette smoke is dangerous to the
smoker, much less to the nonsmoker.
But, consider the popular perception.
The Repaces and Lowreys, Whites and Froebs, Hirayamas,
Trichopoulos's and cou'.tless other anti-smoker scientists have
kept refueling the public's paradoxical fear of its environment
6
,
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to the extent that seventy percent of nonsmokers and a majority of
smokers now believe that ambient smoke is probably hazardous and a
no-smoking sign will restore health to the indoor air.
More reenforcements are on the way.
; D...--
o Environment Internationah has scheduled publication of
Repace's nonsmoker death estimate for late May. We expect
he'll make a new news story out of it. But he may not know
that we'll beat him to the media in a series of documented,
one-on-one briefings. Repace may not know the journal
editor's own skepticism, the editor's warm reception of
Sorrel Schwartz' critique, and the editor's eagerness to get
and publish the critical scientific responses we're
stimulating. We other^,hits
vi=~ are going to be needed here.
o EPA has given the National Academy of Sciences $75,000 to do
a"preliminary investigation on the hazards of exposure of
nonsmokers to tobacco smoke." We expect the study to be
completed, and publicized, at the end of this month. Beyond
that, EPA has $2 million this year to investigate indoor air
quality from various angles, but there is no sign yet of
funding for next year. At the moment, we can only stay on
watch here.
o The National Academy of Sciences has a contract to do a
Congressionally mandated $500 J00 study of aircraft cabin air
quality for the Federal Aviation Administration. A report is
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required about a year from now and is likely to include
regulatory or legislative recommendations. We have a plan
for this one, and I'll come back to it in a minute.
o The Interagency Committee on Indoor Air Quality has a grand
plan for government research pending at 0MB for clearance.
The Consumer Federation of America and others are promoting
more government funding. As soon as the 0MB releases the
agenda, we will put it under our microscopes.
o The 1985 Surgeon General's report, expected in 8e~e-r-, will
address workplace smoking and, more specifically, what Dr.
Koop will assess as the synergistic.effects of cigarette
smoke and such substances as asbestos, radon and cotton
dust. We believe there will be 14 chapters demonstrating
that the synergistic whole is greater than the sum of its
parts. We've identified some of the authors, we're pulling
together their published treatments of these subjects, trying
to visualize what the report will look like, so we can begin
drafting our response.
o The Office on Smoking and Health has begun work on its own
$500,000 literature review which, bolstered by independent
studies, probably will be the meat of the 1986 Surgeon
General's report on passive smoking. Actually, we hope the
review will help us in our own tracking.
o The National Cancer Institute has $500,000 to spend on
passive smoking research and development of exposure: models.
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That one is relevant to an industry support project now
forming, and I will come back to it.
The American Cancer Society is expanding its data base in its
repeat of the million-person survey. It has asked women to
state the number of hours per day they are exposed to smoke
at home, at work and elsewhere. I'll describe our own
questionnaire project in a moment.
o We know of at least 16 relevant major research efforts
under way in private institutions -- none of which can be
expected to help us much.
They range from work at the Harvard School of Public Health
on "Constituents of Sidestream and Mainstream Tobacco Smoke
and Markers to Quantify Exposure" to a study at the
University of North Carolina Department of Pediatrics on the
"Significance of Childhood Respiratory Infections." These
just add to the scientific pressure which we have barely
begun to meet.
There have been innumerable scientific meetings and symposia
including focuses on ambient smoke. We have supported only one --
at Geneva two years ago -- and its effect was diminished because
The Institute had to be its publicity agent.
Many others are in prospect. A sampling:
o A Conference on Smoking and the Workplace, American Lung
Association, Washington, right now.
o The Air Pollution Control Association, Detroit, June.
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o An International Conference on Indoor Air Quality, Ottawa,
0
this month.
The American Chemical Society, Miami, this month.
A Symposium on Health Risk Assessment, Columbia, Maryland,
next month.
There is little chance the outcome and publicity on these
projects and meetings will be sympathetic. There is every chance
they will contribute to the adversary offensive.
If we still lack a star-wars capacity to explode the missiles
before they hit, we are at least making some progress in
defusing.
We now have-several scientist consultants capable and willing
to critique the anti-smokers' research.
Foremost, Schwartz, who already has testified in legislative
hearings, and who is prepared to brief reporters.
He and others will be busy with us in anticipation of the
1985 Surgeon General's report, in briefings of journalists,
legislators, business and labor officials.
~fMAND iv~
~; S,~?P/"nc-.r, C
The quickest way to put a dent in the conventional wisdom, of
course, is critiquing other peoples' work. The next best is to
replicate their work or show that it can't be repeated. Third
best is supporting new research.
!~As a result of your direction last July; a committee led by
;
Don Hoel, comprised of industry scientists, attorneys and
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