
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 27, 1990                   TAG: 9006270060
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

EPA SMOKE REPORT FUELS TOBACCO WAR

Anti-smoking forces view a new Environmental Protection Agency report as a key victory in their decades-old war against tobacco use. But tobacco industry sources say the report is unsupported speculation.

The EPA report, still in draft form without final agency approval, was released Monday. It says second-hand smoke causes about 3,800 lung cancer deaths annually among non-smokers. It also says children of smokers suffer more respiratory problems than children of non-smokers.

"For the first time, the government has come up with a real body count on the effects of environmental tobacco smoke," John Banzhaf, the executive director of the anti-smoking group Action on Smoking and Health, said Tuesday. "It's going to have a major impact."

Nonsense, said Brennan Dawson, vice president of public affairs for the Tobacco Institute. The EPA report, she said, is filled with scientific inaccuracies and is but another example of the anti-smoking bias in some government agencies.

She said a review of the study by an EPA independent science board will destroy the conclusions drawn in the draft report.

by CNB