Put Out That Butt!

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.

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.

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.

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.