Court Sides With Tobacco
A court ruling has attacked a milestone Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report that classified secondhand smoke as a human carcinogen. On 17 July, 5 years after the report came out, Judge William Osteen of North Carolina's 4th U.S. District Court ruled in favor of tobacco company plaintiffs that the "EPA did not demonstrate a statistically significant association" between secondhand smoke and lung cancer. He also chastised the agency for being "publicly committed to a conclusion before research had begun."
The EPA study, one of several dozen to suggest a link between cancer and secondhand smoke, has been used to bolster lawsuits and is credited by some with the quick spread of indoor smoking bans nationwide. R. J. Reynolds now says it may challenge such ordinances.
EPA says it will appeal the ruling. But antismoking advocates such as Robert Kline, director of the Tobacco Control Legal Clinic at Northeastern University law school, contend it really doesn't matter. Says Kline, "It's going to be hard to put the genie back in the bottle."
