Posted on 07/05/2006 10:41:15 AM PDT by neverdem
The surgeon general hypes the hazards of secondhand smoke.
According to Surgeon General Richard Carmona, secondhand smoke is so dangerous that you'd be better off if you stopped going to smoky bars and started smoking instead. "Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke," claims the press release that accompanied his new report on the subject, "has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and increases risk for heart disease and lung cancer."
Among smokers, these diseases take many years to develop. So if you got your health tips from the surgeon general, you'd start smoking a pack a day as a protective measure.
But you may want to look elsewhere for medical advice. Carmona is so intent on promoting smoking bans—a key element of the government's campaign to reduce cigarette consumption—that he absurdly exaggerates the hazards of secondhand smoke, hoping to generate enough public alarm to banish smokers from every location outside the home.
As the report itself makes clear, there is no evidence that brief, transient exposure to secondhand smoke has any effect on your chance of developing heart disease or lung cancer. The studies that link secondhand smoke to these illnesses involve intense, long-term exposure, typically among people who have lived with smokers for decades.
Even in these studies, it's difficult to demonstrate an effect, precisely because the doses of toxins and carcinogens bystanders passively absorb are much smaller than the doses absorbed by smokers, probably amounting to a fraction of a cigarette a day. Not surprisingly, the epidemiological studies cited by the surgeon general's report find that the increases in lung cancer and heart disease risks associated with long-term exposure to secondhand smoke are small, on the order of 20 to 30 percent. Among smokers, by contrast, the risk of heart disease is between 100 and 300 percent higher, while the risk of lung cancer is about 900 percent higher.
Because the associations found in the secondhand smoke studies are so weak, it's impossible to rule out alternative explanations, such as unreported smoking or other lifestyle variables that independently raise disease risks. Although the surgeon general's report concludes such factors are unlikely to entirely account for the observed associations, the truth is we don't know for sure and probably never well, given the limitations of epidemiology and the difficulty of measuring low-level risks.
Reasonable people can disagree about the meaning of these ambiguous data, and it's not surprising that supporters of smoking bans like Carmona are inclined to see a clear causal relationship, while opponents (like me) are inclined to be more skeptical. But there is no excuse for the kind of scare mongering in which Carmona engaged when he implied that you could drop dead from the slightest whiff of tobacco smoke.
Even supporters of smoking bans, such as longtime anti-smoking activist Michael Siegel, faulted Carmona for gilding the lily (blackening the lung?) by saying things such as, "There is NO risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure." This position contradicts the basic toxicological principle that the dose makes the poison. Since it's hard to measure even the health consequences of heavy, long-term exposure to secondhand smoke, how could one possibly demonstrate an effect from, say, a few molecules? "No risk-free level" is an article of faith, not a scientific statement.
Speaking of which, Carmona was at pains to say he was merely summarizing the science, not making policy recommendations, even though he emphasized that smoking bans are the only way to eliminate the "serious public health hazard" posed by secondhand smoke. He is right about this much: The issue of what the government should do about secondhand smoke is independent from the issue of exactly how risky it is. Whether smoking bans are a good idea is a question not of science but of values, of whether we want to live in a country where a majority forcibly imposes its preferences on everyone else or one where there is room for choice and diversity.
© Copyright 2006 by Creators Syndicate Inc.
Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason. His weekly column is distributed by Creators Syndicate. If you'd like to see it in your local newspaper, please e-mail or call the editorial page editor today.
Poor baby. The smokers are taxpayers, just like you.
But I wonder your problem, watching fireworks, with the likelihood of smelling them, yet complaining about folks smoking cigarettes.........you've got issues.
How many people die of second-hand AIDS?
The DOD has just announced that they are dismantling their nuclear program in favor of the development of the innovative second-hand-smoke bomb.
The new bomb, developed by DARPA in the late 90's, was financed by the revenue generated from the numberous tobacco settlements.
An anonymous Pentagon official stated, "According to all of the data gathered from these lawsuits, second-hand-smoke is the deadliest stuff on the planet. It would be a disservice to national defense not to weaponize it."
That is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Good!!!!!!!!!!!
Beacuse one of the driving forces behind the anti-smoking movement is the drug legalization crowd. All they want to do get cigarette smoking to be percieved as the same as doing drugs, then they will switch from being anti smoking to pro drug legalization.
It amazes me that any of us are even here today. If second hand smoke is so bad then we all should have died years ago when cigarettes weren't filtered and more people were smoking. In fact the only place smoking wasn't allowed was in church, but as soon as the sermon was over with they were lighting up on the steps outside.
What we need are people to start calling 911 every time they see somebody lighting up a cigarette. The police and 911 operators may be annoyed..
You might want to rethink this one - tying up 911 lines will punish not so much the police and 911 operators as it will punish those in need of police and ambulance services. I'd hate to see the death of a heart attack victim on someone's conscience when there might be better ways to deal with the issue.
NO, this whining is annoying. Maybe we should tax whining, then raise the legal age to 90 before you are allowed to whine.
Which is an excellent idea. It might provide the impetus to repeal some of these absurd laws.
Interesting question.
Good. You made the right decision.
Excellent!
I think that before long the operators would soon be hanging up on the smoking calls...which would highlight the fact that even the government acknowledges that second hand smoke is nowhere near the threat they hold it out to be. As for the use of deadly force, according to the antis, surgeon general included, second hand smoke is lethal, it merely acts more slowly than a bullet. According to the banners, my smoking in a public park is every bit as much a hazard as my taking my M1 and cranking off a few rounds, not at anyone or anything in particular, but just shooting at random. According to their logic, my second hand smoke might kill someone, and dead is dead...just like a stray bullet might kill someone. If the smoke is potentially fatal to others, why does it matter how long it takes to kill? If a bullet kills in a fraction of a second, is that any more fatal than poisoning someone to death over the course of a week? a month? a year? decades? Is it any worse than embezzling $1 million all at once, or over the course of years? If smoking puts another person's life at risk, should they not be permitted deadly force to defend themselves? I'd like the liberal-logic answer on this, but doubt they would ever address it. Of course it's an absurd notion, but it's the logical conclusion to the path on which we've embarked.....
"It stinks" is the biggest single complaint from non-smokers who aren't yet on the warpath but I would think that the stench that accompanies a fireworks display might mask the smell just a bit.
nump
Another one for "stinks."
I know exactly how you feel. I was an addict myself.
And now you are addicted to whining.
You have no idea how anyone feels, you just like to whine.
Thanks for the ping Gabz! I was going to ping you, but saw that someone beat me to it. So, I sat back and smoked a cigarette and awaited your ping-a-ling! ;*)
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