"Federal Court Rules Against EPA on Secondhand Smoke -- The Washington Post | John Schwartz
A federal court has taken a look at the Environmental Protection Agency's science on secondhand smoke and called it junk. Indeed, a view that is, in EPA Administrator Carol Browner's words, "widely accepted" is not the same as scientific proof. However one feels about the personal hazards of smoking, this ruling is a victory for science and against what Judge Robert Bork has called "authoritarian regulation propelled by moral intimidation."
Reports on the effects of secondhand smoke have long been controversial. While all credible scientific authorities say that cigarette smoking causes cancer, secondhand smoke involves such a low concentration of carcinogens that a strong cancer connection is hard to establish.
A new study, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, found no statistically significant risk to secondhand smoke. The tobacco industry accused the study's sponsors, the World Health Organization, of trying to suppress the findings; WHO said the companies "completely misrepresented" the study.
From what I understand, the court decided this about three years ago. I'm not up to speed on any new studies that would support the WHO position at this time, but if so, even those would have to undergo scrutiny.
In the meantime, I'll puff away and continue to accuse governments at all levels of over-riding the rights of private businesses to make their own smoking or non-smoking decisions and forcing exhorbitant taxes and penalties on smokers and tobacco growers.
'There just doesn't seem to be enough legitimate issues left for the abundance of these control freaks to become involved in these days, but I'm sure they'll find something else to dig their noses into if they fail with the smoke issue.
More stupidity from the Dem governor of W.Va., where Pa. and Ohio smokers currently visit to buy our lower-priced cigarettes:
Gov. Bob Wise is considering an increase in the cigarette tax as a way to avoid a projected $150 million deficit in the state budget in the next fiscal year.
.... Legislatures in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana and Connecticut have voted to raise cigarette taxes, according to Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for Americans for Tax Reform. Increases are under consideration in California, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey and Oregon, he said. ....
.... One of the options on the table is increasing the state's 17-cent per pack cigarette tax, which ranks about 41st in the nation, according to figures from the American Lung Association. ....
West Virginia's tax is already higher than the 3-cent per pack taxes in Virginia and Kentucky. But increasing the tax could put the state in danger of outpacing Ohio, which recently boosted its tax to 55 cents per pack. Avoiding that by limiting the tax to 52 cents per pack would still bring in $56.1 million for West Virginia's cash-strapped budget, Health and Human Resources Secretary Paul Nusbaum said. He said that number takes into account a loss of smokers who quit because of the increased cost of cigarettes. full story
The WHO study is the same old study, just different wording, and won’t come out until fall. From what I heard, there are no changes, except in the words. Just more spin.