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- <text id=93TT2356>
- <title>
- Jan. 18, 1993: Put Out That Butt!
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Jan. 18, 1993 Fighting Back: Spouse Abuse
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK
- NATION, Page 16
- Put Out That Butt!
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>The EPA officially recognizes the dangers of secondhand smoke
- </p>
- <p> The Environmental Protection Agency, after a curious delay,
- gave nonsmokers more ammunition to target smoking colleagues,
- relatives and restaurant patrons. It spent two years reviewing
- an expert panel's findings and finally concluded that exposure
- to secondhand smoke exacerbates bronchitis, pneumonia and other
- ailments in children and kills 3,000 adults through lung cancer
- each year. The report, which had seemingly run afoul of
- political considerations within the agency, was immediately
- denounced by the tobacco industry.
- </p>
- <p> Physicians agree that the greatest danger from passive
- smoking lies in the kind of chronic exposure that may occur
- during a 40-year marriage, and not in the occasional inhalation
- of cigarette fumes. Many doctors routinely advise parents of
- young children to quit, says Dr. William H. Coleman, incoming
- president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. "At the
- very least, they should not smoke inside the house and never in
- the car," he declares.
- </p>
- <p> Although the EPA's conclusions lack any regulatory punch,
- several American companies are now considering a total ban on
- cigarette smoking in the workplace. The Baltimore Orioles
- announced last week that they would limit smoking to certain
- designated areas of their open-air stadium and prohibit it in
- the seats.
- </p>
- <p> News about the EPA report also brought to light the fact
- that a separate division of the government agency, which
- studies indoor pollutants, had dropped its funding of research
- into tobacco smoke. Critics alleged that the decision, which
- was made about the same time that the passive-smoking panel
- reached its conclusions, was a result of lobbying by the tobacco
- industry. Although the government denies the charge, Congress
- has launched an investigation.
- </p>
-
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-