In Brief : Tobacco Industry Fights Back

The tobacco industry, in newspaper ads running around the country today, touted a survey indicating that three of four Americans don’t support workplace or restaurant smoking bans.

The industry’s counter-initiative through its lobbying organization, the Tobacco Institute, comes during the week marking the 25th anniversary of the first of the surgeon general’s reports to declare smoking a health hazard.

A spokeswoman for the institute, Brennan Dawson, noted that some anti-smoking groups are pushing for a “smoke-free” society. “To achieve their purposes,” she said, “anti-smokers are turning to censorship, harassment, punitive taxes and intrusion into personal and private decision-making.”

“The majority of Americans, according to objective polling, do not support these anti-smoking efforts,” she said.

The institute’s poll was conducted by the Washington firm of Hamilton, Frederick & Schneiders, which said it randomly telephoned 1,500 Americans over age 18 between Nov. 23 and Dec. 6, 1988. The respondents included 1,099 nonsmokers and 401 smokers, the firm said.

An overwhelming number of those polled indicated they are satisfied with current levels of smoking restrictions, and opposed outright bans in the workplace or public areas.