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WARNING: This site deals only with the corporate corruption of science, and makes no inference about the motives or activities of individuals involved.
    There are many reasons why individuals become embroiled in corporate corruption activities - from political zealotry to over-enthusiastic activism; from gullibility to greed.
    Please read the OVERVIEW carefully, and make up your own mind.




TOBACCO INDUSTRY EXPLANATORY

ABBREVIATIONS
JARGON
SPIN-MEISTERS
INITIALS
FIRST & NICKNAMES
Misc.RESEARCH HELP

RELEVANT LINKS
ASHRAE
sick building syndrome
Bus. Council on Indoor Air
BOMA
Mayada A Logue
Paul A Cammer
Simon Turner
Healthy Buildings Int'/
Edward (Ed) Fickes



RESEARCH HELP:   If you wish to help research or write for this project, we are always looking for volunteers.
E-mail the editor (below).

[Temporary: while site is under construction]  

Peter Harold Billing    

(aka Billings)

The representative of the National Forest Products Association (NFPA) on the committee of ASHRAE (the air-conditioning engineers organization) which set the standards for ventilation of office buildings.

PRELIMINARY MATERIAL ONLY


Being able to influence the air-conditioning standards set by ASHRAE was vitally important to the tobacco industry in its battle to retain the rights of office workers to smoke at their desks, and for blue-collar workers to smoke while working.

During the various oil crises of the 1970s and '80s, the cost of office heating and cooling in sealed buildings climbed dramatically. Office owners and managers tried to limit these costs by reducing the exchange of air between the already-warm/cool indoor air, and the outdoor ambient 'fresh' air [which was often also polluted].

The interest of the building operators lay in having this exchange as low as was tolerable by the office or factory inhabitants. Non-smoking office or factory workers, however, wanted the smoke and other pollutants of the indoor air to be exhausted and replaced with something cleaner.

Meanwhile the tobacco industry was spending a fortune lobbying to discount the problems of ETS in the workplace, mainly by underhand payments to the IAQ testing companies, and by lobbying to have ASHRAE standards for the indoor-outdoor air exchange set as high as possible. Very often the same individuals who did sham IAQ testing for the tobacco industry also sat on the ASHRAE committees which set these exchange standards.


Billing's association, the National Forest Products Association , seems to have been caught up in this war through its historical role in setting standards for the wooden evaporative air-cooling towers (using water flowing over wooden slats) used in many of the older buildings. These systems were found to harbor the bacteria which caused Legionairre's disease — a fact that the tobacco industry exploited by promoting a scare-campaign about " sick building syndrome ".

Another reason for the NFPA's interest in indoor air quality (IAQ) was that many manufactured wood products, such as particle-board and plywood, give off poisonous formaldehyde, which was probably second only to tobacco smoke as a serious indoor air pollutant.


The National Forest Products Association had a Washington-based lobby operation which was run by John Showalter.
  Billing's office, however, was at St Charles, Illinois.

1992 /E: Billing was one of 13 voting members of the ASHRAE Standard 62 Committee — looking at the "Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality" . It was to review the old standard known as SSPC62 or Standard 62-89 (done routinely every five years)

    The NFPA set the construction and maintenance standards for water-evaporative air-conditioning towers used on many office buildings (the ones blamed for Legionairre's Disease), and had other related interests in IAQ.

1992 Feb 6: An analysis of the membership of the SSPC92 committee done for Philip Morris by another committee member, Ed Fickes , credits Billing with special status within this group as a "Member with building code experience."

    His association is listed as one "associated with the production of materials, HVAC equipment and systems, and IAQ measurement and control systems or devices.

1993 /E: RJ Reynolds file on each member of the SSPC92 committee lists Billing as having no RJR contacts, and comments "Peter assisted Gene Tucker [of the EPA] as secretary in the first meeting of the SSPC62 committee, seems reaon[able]. "
    They also have question-marks beside the "Smoking Position" entry, so they are not sure whether he is pro- or anti-smoking. Since anti-smokers on the committee were generally outspoken, this would have suggested to the tobacco industry that he was, perhaps, persuadable.

1993 Jan 26: ASHRAE SSPC 62 conference in Anaheim, California
    Peter Billing is listed as the representative of the National Forest Products Association.

1994 Jan 23: ASHRAE New Orleans meeting: File note by Mayada Logue - Philip Morris' in-house IAQ standards expert)

"Letter to ASHRAE President: Letter was sent to Paul Crammer, President, BCIA, Building Council of America. [actually Paul Cammer of Building Council on Indoor Air , a sham organisation run by the Tobacco Institute] He sent a copy to all the members. Simon Turner, chairman of the technical committee received a copy.

    The plan is for Peter Billings, member of SSPC-62-89, to distribute to other committee members or Simon Turner would introduce it as an observor. I instructed him not to do that — discuss with Ted and RJR role of consultant and who is in charge to make decisions on the run at ASHRAE meetings"
She appears to have been having a dispute with Simon Turner over who was in charge at ASHRAE meetings (a problem she also had with other associates on other occasions).

[Simon Turner was the son of a BAT public-relations executive and a secret partner in the indoor air testing company Healthy Buildings International (HBI). He obviously liased with Logue over ASHRAE standards.]