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- THE WEEK, Page 28SOCIETYPardon My Carcinogen
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- Secondhand tobacco smoke, an EPA board confirms, can cause cancer
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- The fact that smoking causes lung cancer is so well
- established that only the tobacco companies still claim to have
- doubts. Now an Environmental Protection Agency review board,
- acting on a draft report produced within the agency, says
- nonsmokers are in danger as well. "Environmental tobacco smoke"
- -- better known as secondhand smoke -- inhaled by those who
- associate with smokers leads to about 3,000 cases of lung cancer
- a year in the U.S. and 300,000 cases of respiratory disease.
- Conclusion: secondhand smoke should be classified as a major
- carcinogen, which could lead to even stronger restrictions on
- smoking in public.
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- The tobacco industry, predictably, attacked the report,
- arguing that it unfairly took tobacco's effects on those who
- smoke and extrapolated to those who don't. The authors counter
- that the link is valid, but said they would bolster their
- arguments in the final report, due within a few months, as
- requested by the board.
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