Few of the EPA’s findings are new; both the National Research Council and the surgeon general’s office sounded similar warnings in 1986, and the EPA released an earlier draft of the current report in 1990. But the new document includes more data than any of its predecessors, and its conclusions are generally stronger. The surgeon general reported, for example, that ETS may exacerbate symptoms in asthmatic kids. Drawing on 50 recent studies, the new EPA report concludes that passive smoking not only aggravates up to 1 million existing cases of childhood asthma each year but causes 8,000 to 26,000 new cases. The re port also links ETS to pneumonia, bronchitis and reduced lung function and labels it a known cause of middle-ear effusion, a leading source of childhood surgery.

To gauge the association between passive smoking and adult lung cancer, the EPA researchers compiled the results of 30 studies from different parts of the world. Each study compared lung-cancer rates for two classes of nonsmoking women-those living with smokers and those living with nonsmokers. Most carcinogens work too subtly to show measurable effects at the doses people receive in daily life (that’s one reason researchers are always pumping megadoses into lab animals). Yet in each of the eight countries the surveys examined, smokers’ spouses suffered significantly more than their share of lung cancer. And the women breathing the most smoke suffered the greatest increase in risk. The EPA researchers estimate that Americans who live or work among smokers experience a 20 to 30 percent increase in lung-cancer risk and that ETS causes 3,000 U.S.lung-cancer deaths each year.

Though the report deals only with respiratory diseases, many researchers now believe that passive smoking causes a similar increase in heart-disease risk, triggering another 35,000 deaths each year. Alarmed by those figures, the American Heart Association is now asking the EPA to mount a separate review of passive smoking and cardiovascular illness. But if the agency declares secondhand smoke a carcinogen, further study may be redundant. Though EPA risk assessments don’t dictate policy, they weigh heavily on the agencies that do. If secondhand smoke were listed as a known carcinogen, the General Services Administration would likely ban smoking in all federal buildings. OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) could force private employers to follow suit.

To become official, the EPA’s draft report still needs to pass muster with a scientific advisory board (SAB) and with the agency’s administrator, William Reilly. But staffers don’t anticipate major problems. Two years ago, after taking public testimony on the earlier draft, the SAB endorsed the report’s basic conclusions but asked for more data and analysis. Those revisions are now in place. The cigarette industry, which has lobbied for years to soften the findings, isn’t pleased to see them strengthened. In a press statement issued last week, the Washington-based Tobacco Institute accused the EPA of an antismoking bias and questioned the new findings on children and secondhand smoke. “Children are exposed to many different things that could potentially impact their respiratory health,” the institute said. " The children’s ETS-exposure studies … are not remotely adequate in controlling for the many potential factors."

The industry has ample resources, but it’s fighting a powerful current. As recently as 1990, only three American towns had banned smoking in restaurants or workplaces. Today, says Julia Carol of the Berkeley-based Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, 24 municipalities mandate smoke-free workplaces, 26 have banned smoking in restaurants and a few even boast smoke-free bars or prisons. Separate seating was a nice thought, Carol says, but " sitting in the nonsmoking section of a building is like swimming in the nonchlorinated section of a pool." The difference, of course, is that a little chlorine won’t kill you. Other people’s cigarettes may.

In a new draft report, the EPA spells out the dangers of secondhand smoke. Every year, environmental tobacco smoke:

causes 3,000 lung-cancer deaths

contributes to 150,000 to 300,000 respiratory infections in babies (mainly bronchitis and pneumonia), resulting In 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations

triggers 8,000 to 26,000 new cases of asthma in previously unaffected kids

exacerbates symptoms In 400,000 to 1 million asthmatic children

SOURCE: ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY