• Secondhand smoke targeted before
• Tobacco industry disagrees with findings
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December 3, 1998
Web posted at: 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT)

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, North Carolina (AP) -- An advisory commission's decision has paved the way for secondhand smoke to be placed on the federal government's official list of cancer-causing substances, over the tobacco industry's strong objections.

The subcommittee of the National Toxicology Program's Board of Scientific Counselors voted unanimously on Wednesday to affirm the recommendations of two groups of government scientists that secondhand smoke should be labeled a carcinogen.

The panel also concluded that alcoholic beverage consumption can lead to cancer, and it noted that heavy drinkers and drinkers who smoke are most susceptible to cancers of the mouth, esophagus, pharynx and larynx.

The panel made its findings in preparation for the ninth edition of the Report on Carcinogens, the federal government's official list of carcinogenic agents. The findings will be forwarded to the NTP director, who will make recommendations to federal Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.

Secondhand smoke targeted before

In 1993, the federal Environmental Protection Agency declared that secondhand smoke is a carcinogen. But the government report -- which had been used to justify tougher smoking restrictions across the nation -- was struck down in July by a North Carolina-based federal judge who said the statistics did not show a significant association between the smoke and cancer.

The latest report will be submitted to Congress and be released to the public sometime next year.

The 13-0 vote on secondhand smoke came after two hours of debate at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Several panelists cited studies indicating that people with prolonged exposure to environmental tobacco smoke have about a 20 percent higher risk of developing lung cancer than those who aren't. Spouses and co-workers of smokers have the greatest risk, the panel said.

Tobacco industry disagrees with findings

Wednesday's decision frustrated members of the tobacco industry.

"The smoker's right to smoke is being impeded upon in a smoke-free society," said Gio Batta Gori, who represented Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. "Environmental tobacco smoke is an unavoidable nuisance, but there is no link between (secondhand smoke) and an increased risk of lung cancer."

Panelists, most of whom are university researchers, seemed visibly irritated by the research cited by the tobacco industry, some of which has not been published.

"If it's not published, how can we take it into account in this kind of setting and at this speed?" asked Steven Belinsky with the Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute in New Mexico.

Copyright 1998   The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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