I actually agree with the article in the same way I agree that just riding on one commercial airliner flight could get you killed in a plane crash.
I really abhor cigarette smoke, and strongly believe that second hand smoke is very harmful to cats. Studies have demonstrated this. But for humans, it is more of an annoyance. And yes, it annoys me a LOT.
But the risk of actual health complications is simply not supported by empirical evidence yet. And, as much as I dislike it, even “pack a day” smoking is not as dangerous as most people think. It would literally be more dangerous to eat a big mac every day than smoke a pack of cigarettes every day. It is DIET that is a more sure fire killer than smoking is.
Genetic factors almost certainly can make a person more sensitive to smoking than the average. I believe I saw this happen in my mother’s family, in which the two non smoking siblings beat the life spans of the two smoking siblings by about two decades, and none of the deaths were due to manslaughter or accident. I always point this out to surviving members of my family when encouraging them not to smoke.
My father, interestingly enough, was one of the very few who had the will power to “take it or leave it.” I saw him smoke literally one cigarette a week, and that was at social events.