On December 11, 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that companies adversely affected by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) designation of second-hand smoke as a Group A (“known human”) carcinogen do not have the right to seek judicial review of that designation. The court held that EPA’s designation was not “final agency action” subject to review under federal law. The decision was a setback for WLF, which filed a brief in the case in support of the plaintiffs. WLF argued that individuals and businesses can be severely damaged by a federal government designation that their product causes cancer and thus ought to be permitted judicial review of the propriety of such designations.
