HOLLOW VICTORY

AMERICA's tobacco industry must think it has pulled off a wonderful coup. A
federal court judge in North Carolina ruled last week that the US
Environmental Protection Agency's key study of lung cancer and breathing
smoke from other people's cigarettes had failed to prove a statistically
significant link. As the study paved the way for bans on smoking in
offices, restaurants and other public places, the tobacco companies must be
overjoyed. They will be looking forward to the odds shifting against the
many nonsmokers who are suing over cancers they believe developed through
passive smoking.

Let them savour the moment. Their victory will prove short-lived. The EPA
will certainly appeal, and in any case a lot has happened since its study
was carried out in 1993. More research has shown links between passive
smoking and lung cancer.

We have also come to know a lot about the industry's cynical attempts to
obscure those links. A review appearing in the 20 May issue of the Journal
of the American Medical Association reveals that in 106 published papers
"the only factor associated with concluding that passive smoking is not
harmful was whether an author was affiliated with the tobacco industry".
The reviewers conclude that "the tobacco industry may be attempting to
influence scientific opinion by flooding the scientific literature".

It's not a strategy that can succeed in the long run. The victory in North
Carolina--- which just happens to be a tobacco-growing state---may be the
industry's last gasp.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski