['Congressional', 'Researchers', 'Criticize', 'EPA', 'Study', 'The', 'Environmental', 'Protection', 'Agency', 'has', 'badly', 'misled', 'Americans', 'about', 'the', 'impact', 'of', 'environ-', 'mental', 'tobacco', 'smoke.', "That's", 'the', 'view', 'of', 'the', 'Congressional', 'Research', 'Service', '(CRS),', 'an', 'independent', 'arm', 'of', 'Congress.', 'CRS', 'took', 'a', 'close', 'look', 'at', 'the', 'science', 'behind', 'the', "agency's", 'claim', 'that', 'sidestream', 'smoke', 'causes', '3,000', 'deaths', 'each', 'year.', 'The', 'CRS', 'report', 'found', 'no', 'overall', 'association', 'between', 'workplace', 'environ-', 'mental', 'tobacco', 'smoke', 'exposure', 'and', 'lung', 'cancer.', 'The', 'EPA', 'claim', 'has', 'been', 'widely', 'used', 'to', 'justify', 'smoking', 'bans', 'across', 'the', 'land.', 'The', 'Occupational', 'Safety', 'and', 'Health', 'Administration', '(OSHA)', 'also', 'has', 'used', 'the', 'claim', 'in', 'its', 'consideration', 'of', 'possible', 'bans', 'on', 'smoking', 'in', 'the', 'workplace.', 'Congressman', 'Scotty', 'Baesler', '(D-KY)', 'had', 'accused', 'OSHA', 'and', 'the', 'EPA', 'of', '“cooking', 'the', 'science”', 'in', 'their', 'zeal', 'to', 'find', 'a', 'reason', 'for', 'smoking', 'bans.', '“The', 'CRS', 'report', 'proves', 'what', 'we', 'have', 'been', 'saying', 'all', 'along.', 'OSHA', 'has', 'been', 'blinded', 'by', 'bad', 'science', '.', '.', '.', '(and)', 'never', 'proved', 'there', 'is', 'a', 'significant', 'risk', 'of', 'harm', 'from', 'exposure', 'to', 'environmental', 'tobacco', 'smoke', 'in', 'the', 'workplace,"', 'said', 'Baesler.', 'Senator', 'Wendell', 'Ford', '(D-KY)', 'called', 'upon', 'OSHA', 'to', 'reopen', 'its', 'hearing', 'on', 'the', 'proposed', 'regulation', 'to', 'ban', 'smoking', 'in', 'work', 'places.', '“These', 'bureaucratic', 'agencies', 'are', 'pursuing', 'an', 'agenda', 'to', 'punish', 'citizens', 'who', 'exercise', 'the', 'personal', 'right', 'to', 'smoke,”', 'he', 'said.', ' ', 'Some', 'highlights', 'from', 'the', '70-page', 'CRS', 'report:', 'Cooking', 'the', 'Science', '«', '"The', 'results', 'are', 'not', 'definitive.', 'And', 'g', 'even', 'at', 'the', 'greatest', '(exposure)', 'levels,', 'the', 'measured', 'risks', 'are', 'still', 'subject', 'to', '   ', '“Sure', 'it’s', 'rotten', 'science,', 'but', 'it’s', 'fora', 'good', 'on', 'cause.”', 'uncertainty.', 'So', 'said', 'an', 'anonymous', 'public', 'health', 'e', '“Statistical', 'evidence', 'does', 'not', 'appear', 'researcher', 'in', 'a', '1992', 'article.', 'The', 'researcher', 'to', 'support', 'a', 'conclusion', 'that', 'there', 'are', 'was', 'referring', 'to', 'an', 'EPA', 'claim', 'that', 'environmen-', 'substantial', 'health', 'effects', 'of', 'passive', 'tal', 'tobacco', 'smoke', 'causes', '3,000', 'deaths', 'every', 'smoking.”', 'year.', 'The', 'audit', 'by', 'the', 'independent', 'and', 'unbi-', 'ased', 'Congressional', 'Research', 'Service', 'con-', '*', '“If,', 'on', 'average', '(as', 'studies', 'suggest)', 'cludes', 'that', 'the', 'researcher', 'was', 'right', '—', 'it', 'was', 'workplace', 'exposure', 'is', 'lower', 'than', 'rotten', 'science.', 'Since', 'when', 'is', 'it', 'acceptable', 'for', 'residential', 'exposure,', 'then', 'it', 'is', 'likely', 'government', 'officials', 'to', 'distort', 'scientific', 'results', 'that', 'many', 'workers', 'would', 'not', 'be', 'ex', 'to', 'support', 'a', 'political', 'agenda?', 'posed', 'to', 'sufficient', 'environmental', 'tobacco', 'smoke', 'to', 'be', 'at', 'increased', 'risk', '\\', 'for', 'lung', 'cancer.', 'More', 'extensive', 'workplace', 'exposure', 'data', 'are', 'required', 'before', 'this', 'issue', 'can', 'be', 'resolved.”', ' ', ' ', 'The', 'CRS', 'rebuttal', 'of', 'EPA', 'was', 'a', 'blockbuster,', 'yet', 'it', 'attracted', 'almost', 'no', 'media', 'attention.', 'Brown', '&', 'Williamson', 'is', 'working', 'to', 'change', 'this.', 'We', 'will', 'work', 'hard', 'to', 'get', 'the', 'story', 'out.', 'We', 'want', 'this', 'highly', 'credible,', 'independent', 'report', 'to', 'get', 'the', 'attention', 'it', 'deserves.', "43'70000S7", '437000057', 'PRODUCED', 'FROM', 'BéW', 'WEB', 'SITE', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ']