1986, both released reports concluded that secondhand smoke is harmful and sometimes fatal. In 1991, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) released a review of 12 major studies of environmental tobacco smoke and concluded that it is a potential carcinogen, recommending that all preventive measures be used to minimize occupational exposure.
Of particular interest to specialists has been the EPA draft report, Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking. Its alarm against secondhand smoke was endorsed by the EPA's scientific advisory board as well as the American Medical Association. It has been attacked, however, by other scientists, smokers'-rights advocates, and the tobacco industry (Clark, 1992, p. 1052).
While the trend toward banning all smoking is now occurring in prisons (Smothers, 1993, Section 1, p. 16), because of secondhand smoke, it has not taken hold in some areas of the workplace. Employers without workplace smoking policies say they have not acted mainly because of lack of employee demand, and not cost, according to a survey of 833 human-resource executives. While a small minority of U.S. employers do not have such policies, most say they plan to implement them in the next two years (Clark, 1992, p. 1053).
Furthermore, persuading people to stop smoking has become an industry in itself (Waldrop, 1992, p. 4). For example, commercials for Wrigley's Spearmint Gum are aimed at smokers who are not allowed to smoke in certain situations, such as when in-laws are visiting, when children are in the car, or when office policy forbids it. This reflects the recent changes in social attitudes toward smoking. At least 88 percent of non-smokers now say they find cigarette smoking annoying, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) (Waldrop, 1992, p. 4). Even among current smokers, one-third say they are annoyed by cigarette smoke. Only four percent of adults ask an o...