Reactions to Public Smoking Reductions
   
 

Philip Morris CONFIDENTIAL document: Public Smoking Hearing Readiness

  Primary Responsibility: John Lyons, Sharon Ransome, Kay Thomas
  February 1989

 
Summary of Image
Page One
This memorandum includes information on the [tobacco] industry's ability to respond to legislative hearings on: Smoking aboard airliners; Workplace smoking restrictions; Smoking restrictions in other public places; and Indoor air quality issues;
The Tobacco Industry and its Allies Must Cover -- the "continued lack of scientific evidence that environmental tobacco smoke is a cause of disease in healthy nonsmokers." [click on image to enlarge to full size -- 16K]


 
Summary of Image
Page Two
Flaws in "existing research should be illuminated, and the need for additional, well-designed studies should be expressed." With respect to airliners, "experts must refute the interpretation of the report published in the February 10, 1989 Journal of the American Medical Association. The report suggests that passengers in the nonsmoking section of airliners are harmed by exposure to tobacco smoke."
We must point out the "lack of evidence that smokers are any more costly or less productive than nonsmokers." [click on image to enlarge to full size -- 20K]


 
Summary of Image
Page Three
We must emphasize the "potential collective bargaining problems for organized labor as well as union concerns about the broader issue of indoor air quality."
Point out "Aboard airliners, the threat to fire safety posed by surreptitious smoking in lavatories and by other attempts to conceal -- under newspapers, magazines or blankets -- in-flight smoking."
[click on image to enlarge to full size -- 12K]


 
Summary of Image
Page Four
Listing of witnesses, surveys and videotapes
Action needed: conduct "pre-hearing briefings with Congressmen and staff on indoor air quality and ETS issues. Videotapes on both issues are available for use, along with scientific and ventilation experts."
[click on image to enlarge to full size -- 12K]


 

BACKGROUND NOTE: This confidential Philip Morris document lists the arguments that the tobacco industry "must cover" in hearings for public smoking bills. Note the arguments that smoking bans discriminate against women, the disabled and blue collar workers while favoring white male executives, and the argument that smoking bans on airplanes will cause a fire hazard.

Quotes:
The anti-smoking movement's agenda for the 101st Congress includes a number of proposals to further restrict or prohibit smoking in public places...At least half a dozen public smoking bills have already been introduced, including legislation to ban smoking in Federal buildings and on all domestic airline flights.

What TI and its Allies Must Cover
On public smoking legislation generally, and on airline legislation in many instances, Tobacco Institute testimony and that of its allies and interested parties should emphasize:

1. The continued lack of scientific evidence that enviornmental tobacco smoke is a cause of disease in healthy nonsmokers....

With respect to airliners, experts must refute the interpretation of the report published in the February 10, 1989 Journal of the American Medical Association. That report suggests that passengers in the nonsmoking section of airliners are harmed by exposure to tobacco smoke. Nicotine exposure levels cited in the study are comparable to industry-generated data, but the methodology used to associate these levels with health harm is flawed....

2. Evidence that smoking is a minor aspect of a serious indoor aair quality problem -- a problem that can and should be addressed not by restricting smoking but by providing adequate ventilation via properly maintained ventilation systems. Smoking restrictions merely appear to alleviate infoor air pollution problems; ventilation is a comprehensive solution....

...6. Discriminatory effects of workplace smoking restrictions, including denying equal access to handicapped workers, selective enforcement and implementation that affects minorities and blue collar workers but excludes white male executives...

...8. Aboard airliners, the threat to fire safety posed by surreptitious smoking in lavatories and by other attempts to conceal -- under newspapers, magazines or blankets--in flight smoking.

Anne Landman
American Lung Association of Colorado, West Region Office
Grand Junction


Document Title: Public Smoking Hearing Readiness (confidential document)
Type of document: report
Author: N/A
Date: Feb., 1989
No. of Pages: 4
Site: http://www.pmdocs.com/
URL: http://www.pmdocs.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=2025848122/8125

 

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