However, it is not proven at this time. I believe establishing public policy based on conjecture is both unwise and fraught with unintended consequences.
In any case, this all started with some posters here claiming that smoking isn't bad for you. I haven't read all of the thread but I'm curious if you've told them that they're wrong.
Without rereading every post, I don't recall anyone saying smoking isn't bad for you. As far as I remember, the jist of what was said is that every smoker is not detectably harmed and that the risks of smoking are overstated. There have also been some posts that smoking may actually be beneficial in limited cases. I haven't checked but such statements sound reasonable to me.
For the record, I don't smoke and never have. In the case of my children I strongly urged them not to smoke and am happy to say they don't. Smoking is a proven health risk.
I think smoking is stupid and smokers are stupid in that aspect of their lives. However, I also realize that anyone observing me over the course of a day would find literally hundreds of things that I do that are stupid and counterproductive to my overall goals as a human being. What's worse than individuals exercising rights to behave counter productively is mandating that they cannot. The unintended consequences of that have accompanied every actual and attempted enslavement in history.
As I've said a few times here, I think smoking should be legal. I also believe that those of us who don't want to be forced to breathe their smoke should have that right.
For years I had to endure smoke in public places and suffer in silence. I have a season ticket for hockey. Before the restrictions on smoking there, by the third period the arena was filled with a smoke filled haze that caused me to sneeze uncontrollably for 45 minutes. It couldn't have been good for me.
Nice post,laredo44 !