EPA administrator Carol Browner's "Science and Secondhand Smoke" (8/22) has all the smoke-and-mirrors characteristics of the EPA secondhand smoke study, recently vacated by a federal judge.
Browner says EPA stands by its science. But few others outside the knee-jerk, lock-step anti-tobacco industry do, including the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service and a 1994 report I wrote for the U.S. Department of Energy -- a report reviewed by Browner's own science adviser.
Browner misleads by denying that EPA did not use its study to restrict tobacco products. In fact, EPA produced a guide for banning smoking in the workplace before the scientific study was complete.
Browner also points out that the EPA conclusions regarding health risks faced by children were not challenged by the tobacco industry. But these conclusions had no regulatory impact. Even OSHA ignored this part of the EPA study when it proposed its own workplace smoking ban.
Browner's claim that secondhand smoke doubles the risk of sudden infant death syndrome makes a mockery of this serious issue. The causes of SIDS are unknown. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that SIDS victims have irregular heart rhythms, possibly making them, literally, ticking time bombs.
I do agree with Administrator Browner that adults should not smoke around children. Smoking is an adult activity, not suitable for children.
Where we differ is that I don't feel it is necessary to use junk science to make this point.
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