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U.S. GOVERNMENT: Second-hand Smoke Study Questioned

The following is a statement by John L. Kirkwood, President and CEO American Lung Association, on the credibility of a tobacco industry-funded study on secondhand smoke:

Tobacco industry-funded researchers writing in today's British Medical Journal claim that nonsmokers living with smokers are not at increased risk of developing serious health problems. This contention runs counter to a large body of credible research linking exposure to secondhand smoke to respiratory illness, lung cancer and heart disease.

Consider the source. The study was funded by tainted money from Big Tobacco -- Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds and Lorillard -- through the Center for Indoor Air Research, which was so spurious that it was disbanded under the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement. The lead researcher, Geoffrey Kabat, has well-known ties to the tobacco industry. This study used good data from the American Cancer Society (ACS) and, according to the ACS itself, distorted it. Not surprisingly, the study was funded by the same people who in 1994 stood before Congress and swore that "tobacco is not addictive," and now they want the public to believe that "secondhand smoke is not harmful." Their latest pack of lies should not be believed.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a body of the World Health Organization, have all concluded that secondhand smoke causes lung cancer and other health problems. CalEPA estimates that secondhand smoke causes approximately 35,000 to 62,000 deaths each year.

Sadly, some smokers will see this study as an excuse to continue to smoke around their families. The bogus study also may be used by policymakers to dismiss efforts to enact laws to protect everyone from secondhand smoke. People who live with smokers are at increased risk. They should take no comfort in the latest data manipulations being promoted by tobacco industry-funded researchers.

We are greatly concerned about the death and disease caused by secondhand smoke. The American Lung Association, now in its second century of existence, will use expanded means through policy, research and education to address scientific misinformation put forth on secondhand smoke.

Written by www.usnewswire.com
/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 05/15 19:47


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