The American Council on Science and Health reports that some affects of smoking are permanent and irreversible. Smoking for only five years damages the lungs, heart, eyes, mouth, throat, digestive organs, genitals and skin. Quitting will not repair all the damage.

However, Thomas Osteen, a federal judge of the US District Court of the Middle District of North Carolina, a tobacco-producing state, ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency had accepted the provisions of the 1986 Radon Gas and Indoor Air Quality Research Act, but had not listened to industry voices. At the time the report was issued, even scientists said the agency used too low a standard to constitute causation rather than chance. Thus, the agency had wrongly declared secondhand tobacco smoke a dangerous, “class A” carcinogen in 1993. The judge said, “EPA publically commited to a conclusion before research had begun, excluded industry by violating the act’s procedurla requirements, adjusted established procedure and scientific norms to validate the agency’s public conclusion, and aggressively utilized the act’s authority to disseminate findings to establish a de fact regulatory scheme intended to restrict…products and to influence public opinion.” The ruling had said secondhand smoke was as dangerous as radon or benzene, and the ruling had resulted in many indoor smoking bans. California restricts smoking even in bars. Carol Browner, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said, “it’s so widely accepted that secondhand smoke causes very real problems for kids and adults.” Secondhand smoke involves low concentrations of carcinogens, and a strong cancer connection is hard to establish. Other reports keep coming that both support and undercut the agency. One thing for sure: the agency had an agenda which they pursued, bending scientific findings and all evidence to fit their preconceived notions. This has backfired, as indeed it should.

Still, Donna Shalala, US secretary of health and human services, says the widespread bans on smoking at work, in restaurants and on airplanes will not be revoked. The US people now “believe it is inappropriate to have to be in a plade where they have to breathe tobacco smoke,” said Matthew Myers, executive vice-president and general cousel for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

On the other hand, Michael York, a lawyer for the cigarette maker Philip Morris Cos., said the new ruling would make difficult suing the tobacco companies for lung cancer.

Cocaine use is down among suspects arrested in many USA cities, but methamphetamine use in the western states rose.