Panel Would List Second-Hand Smoke as Carcinogen

Second-hand cigarette smoke should be declared a known cause of lung cancer and workplace smoking policies should reflect that hazard, according to a panel of scientists that concurred Wednesday with two Environmental Protection Agency reports.

The professional advisory board agreed with a draft EPA report which concluded that cigarette smoke causes 3,800 lung cancer cases a year in nonsmokers. In fact, the panel said, the EPA had understated the dangers of respiratory illness among children whose parents smoke.

The scientific board’s approval gives credibility and backing to future efforts by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration--the federal agency with the power to regulate smoking in workplaces--to ban or restrict smoking in businesses and offices.

“OSHA regulates hazards in the workplace, and that would include whatever impact smoking has,” OSHA spokesman Doug Fuller said. The agency is currently gathering data in preparation for issuing regulations on indoor air quality, Fuller said.

“If anything, the evidence suggests there is more risk than previously thought,” said Morton Lippmann, chairman of the 16-member advisory board asked by the EPA to review its conclusions.

More specifically, he cited the dangers to children and said that the EPA should try to determine whether parts of the human body other than the lungs are affected by passive smoke.

The tobacco industry criticized the EPA draft report. Brennan Dawson, vice president of the Tobacco Institute, charged that the EPA data is incomplete as well as unreliable because the studies involved did not show enough association between cancer in nonsmokers and second-hand smoke.

The American Lung Assn., American Cancer Society and American Heart Assn. all declared Wednesday’s statement a victory and predicted a spate of state laws restricting smoking in public and private workplaces.

Fran Du Melle, chairman of the Coalition on Smoking OR Health, predicted that the board’s support will spur more states to develop smoking restrictions in workplaces.

The coalition plans to push for state requirements that day-care centers be smoke-free in light of the long-lasting affects of second-hand smoke on children.