Tobacco Documents Online

to help smokers kick the habit Today, the same committee ad- dresses the habit itself. "The purpose of the committee meeting is to look at scientific data on the effects of nicotine on the body;" Dr.. Kessler said. "What are its addictive properties? At what doses is nicotine addictive? Is there a level below which it is not addictive?" The agenda and witnesses for the committee were being with- held until today, but if the meeting follows the usual pattern of FDA scientific deliberations, commit- tee members will hear hours of testimony from people with all shades of opinion. Experts eventu- ally will have to vbte yes or no on specific scientific questions. 'Itibacco companies already have signaled where they stand. In testimony before Congress, tobacco executives denied that cigarette smoking is addictive or even dangerous. And in an adver- tising campaign, the companies have attacked what they say is an organized effort aimed at outlaw- ing cigarettes. Some ads assert that cigarette smoking is a civil rights issue and that the govern- ment is trying to trample Amer- ican freedoms. Such arguments don't faze Dr. Kessler. "We recognize that there are large societal issues involved, but we are very much focused, as a scientific agency, on what the sci- entific data indicates. What are the effects?" he said. Dr. Kessler said that even if Study boosts passive-smoking toll. NEW YORK (AP) - Second- hand cigarette smoke will cause an estimated 47,000 deaths and about 150,000 nonfatal heart attacks in UJ S. nonsmokers this year, a study says. That's as much as 50 percent higher than previous estimates. The figures are projected from an analysis of 1985 data that showed that heart disease caused by other people's smoke killed 62,000 people that year and caused as many as 200,000 heart attacks. The reduction since then is due to a decline in smoking and an increase in restrictions on smoking in public places, the study said. The findings, to be published this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, appear amid a public relations campaign by the tobacco indus- try. In a series of full-page news- paper ads, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds have raised ques- tions about links between sec- ondhand smoke and lung cancer. The new study focuses on heart disease, which it said is a more serious problem. "Heart disease appears to be by far the major mortality risk from passive smoking," the study concluded. "Practicing physicians would do well to warn their at-risk heart patients to avoid smoky rooms:' The study was conducted by A. Judson Wells, a consultant to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and a volunteer with the American Lung Association. Earlier calculations, includ- ing one by Mr. Wells himself, es- timated that secondhand smoke was responsible for 32,000 to 37,000 heart disease deaths a year in nonsmokers: cigarettes are found to be drugs, his agency will not seek to totally outlaw them. "Prohibition is never going to work;" . he said, noting that there are just too many adult Americans - about 45 million - who smoke. Instead, the FDA chief is look- ing toward the future. He wants to keep cigarettes out of the hands of the next generation. Dr. Kessler said that most peo- ple try smoking in their teens and often are hooked before they re- alize addiction is possible. His goal is to keep cigarettes away from the young so they never become nic- otine addicts. "If you don't start by age 20 or 21, you are not going to smoke;' Dr. Kessler said. "If we can protect the kids, then we can make major inroads against the habit:' TIMN 327201