Posted on 11/26/2002 4:58:07 AM PST by SheLion
Too much is made of the 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke. We're told these chemicals are so harmful that they are responsible for the deaths of millions worldwide. Untold in this "war on tobacco" is that each of the plants we consume consists of an equally daunting thousands of chemicals many of which are recognized poisons or suspected cancer-causing agents.
Cayenne peppers, carrots and strawberries each contain six suspected carcinogens; onions, grapefruit and tomato each contain five -- some the same as the seven suspected carcinogens found in tobacco.
High-heat cooking creates yet more dietary carcinogens from otherwise harmless chemical constituents.
Sure, these plant chemicals are measured in infinitesimal amounts. An independent study calculated 222,000 smoking cigarettes would be needed to reach unacceptable levels of benzo(a)pyrene. One million smoking cigarettes would be needed to produce unacceptable levels of toluene. To reach these estimated danger levels, the cigarettes must be smoked simultaneously and completely in a sealed 20-square-foot room with a nine-foot ceiling.
Many other chemicals in tobacco smoke can also be found in normal diets. Smoking 3,000 packages of cigarettes would supply the same amount of arsenic as a nutritious 200 gram serving of sole.
Half a bottle of now healthy wine can supply 32 times the amount of lead as one pack of cigarettes. The same amount of cadmium obtained from smoking eight packs of cigarettes can be enjoyed in half a pound of crab.
That's one problem with the anti-smoking crusade. The risks of smoking are greatly exaggerated. So are the costs.
An in-depth analysis of 400,000 U.S. smoking-related deaths by National Institute of Health mathematician Rosalind Marimont and senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute Robert Levy identified a disturbing number of flaws in the methodology used to estimate these deaths. Incorrectly classifying some diseases as smoking-related and choosing the wrong standard of comparison each overstated deaths by more than 65 per cent.
Failure to control for confounding variables such as diet and exercise turned estimates more into a computerized shell game than reliable estimates of deaths.
Marimont and Levy also found no adjustments were made to the costs of smoking resulting from the benefits of smoking -- reduced Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, less obesity, depression and breast cancer.
If it were possible to estimate 45,000 smoking-related Canadian deaths as some health activists imagine -- and Marimont, Levy and other respected researchers think it is not -- then applying an identical methodology to other lifestyle choices would yield 57,000 Canadian deaths due to lack of exercise and 73,000 Canadian deaths blamed on poor diets.
If both the chemical constituents of tobacco smoke and the numbers of smoking-related deaths are overstated -- and clearly they are -- how can we trust the claim that tobacco smoke is harmful to non-smokers?
The 1993 bellwether study by the Environmental Protection Agency that selectively combined the results of a number of previous studies and found a small increase in lung cancer risk in those exposed to environmental tobacco smoke has been roundly criticized as severely flawed by fellow researchers and ultimately found invalid in a court of law.
In 1998, the World Health Organization reported a small, but not statistically significant, increase in the risk of lung cancer in non-smoking women married to smokers.
Despite these invalidating deficiencies, the Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization both concluded tobacco smoke causes lung cancer in non-smokers.
One wonders whether the same conclusions would have been announced if scientific fraud were a criminal offence.
When confronted with the scientific uncertainty, the inconsistency of results and the incredible misrepresentation of present-day knowledge, those seeking to abolish tobacco invoke a radical interpretation of the Precautionary Principle: "Where potential adverse effects are not fully understood, the activity should not proceed."
This unreasonable exploitation of the ever-present risks of living infiltrates our schools to indoctrinate trusting and eager minds with the irrational fears of today. Instead of opening minds to the wondrous complexities of living, it opens the door to peer ridicule and intolerance while cultivating the trendy cynics of tomorrow.
If we continue down this dangerous path of control and prohibition based on an unreliable or remote chance of harm, how many personal freedoms will remain seven generations from now?
Eric Boyd of Waterloo has management experience across a wide range of sectors.
Since women took up smoking in greater numbers, industry, population and other pollutants has grown equally, count the numer of cars then and now......... I rest my case.
That goes for the best hotels as well.
This post is not me Its one of hundreds posted by folks who want to warn others.
My children and wife told me when I used to smoke.
Yes it would be, and the aids epidemic is a sacred cow, smokers on the other hand has a target on them...... open season.
Twanna Holmes
Hi, my name is Twanna Holmes. I am 47 years young, and I have emphysema. I have a wonderful husband and two beautiful children. When I was 16 years old, I started smoking. I was soooo cool! Well hindsight is 20/20 looking back I see how stupid I was. I don't worry so much about what I have done to myself, but what I have done to my family. Emphysema is not an individual thing; it affects your entire family. Instead of telling the symptoms of emphysema, I would like to share with you some of the things emphysema has forced me to change. The first thing that I realized I could no longer do was go on our annual ski trip up to Monarch, Colo. I could not tolerate the altitude change. My kids really missed this, this happened when I was 41 years old. We live in Texas, we have five lakes within 15 minutes of our home, every summer we would live on the lake with our boat skiing and having a great time. Guess what? About three years ago it got to where I could not tolerate the heat and humidity, so I can't go anymore. Going to my daughters sports events, was one of the loves of my life. This past year I did manage to go to her events, it was not an easy task. My hubby would drop me off at the gate or the door to the gym, then he would park the car. I couldn't get a good seat, for climbing stairs is very hard, so we would sit on the bottom bleacher and have to put up with everyone walking in front of us. Bummer!! At her softball games I would watch from the car, us lungers can\'t be around the dirt and dust without getting really short of breath. But she knew I was there, I darn near wore my horn out on my car. My daughter graduated High School in May. They always have graduation at our football stadium after they graduate all the parents go down on the field to congratulate the class. It took me a very long time to make my way to the field, I would walk a little, then have to rest, but it was one of those things I had decided I was going to do or die trying. I finally made it, when I found my daughter she was crying, she thought I wasn't able to make it; we both hugged and cried for the longest time, it was a milestone. The most recent change we have to make is leaving our home of 24 years. It's a beautiful place on the side of a hill in the beautiful hill country. Our home has 19 stairs to get from my car to the front door, I am a prisoner in my own home. Stairs are one of the worse things for lungers. These are just a few of the things that I at 16 didn't think about or worry about. I was invincible and I could defy the warnings of cigarette smoking. Boy was I wrong!! It happened to me and it can happen to you. Be smart you, hold your future in your hands. If you have any questions, comments or would like to know more about changes in my life feel free to contact me at aholmes@tstar.net
Gil Crowell
The other night I watched "Trauma In The ER", on The Learning Channel. One of the episodes stuck in my mind specifically. It was about an elderly gentleman brought in with chest pains and suffering from severe Emphysema. My wife told me, of the three times that I have been taken to the emergency room, this looks shockingly familiar to her.
As they worked over him trying to revive him and getting him to breathe, they finally succeeded, only later to have him relapse. After much trying and working on him by several of the emergency room staff, the old gentleman finally died.
Let me tell you, my eyes were glued to the tube. If this is not a wake up call to all you out there still smoking, I don't know what would be. It sure brought home memories of when I regained consciousness in the ER. I was resuscitated twice this last time, which was approximately a year ago now. It was very scary to watch them work on that man, knowing that could be me. The only difference, I survived, he did not........Just something else to be thankful for and to think about.
While I quit smoking 4½ years ago, this and my work with chemicals has put me into a position where I am on oxygen constantly, through an opening cut in my neck called a Transtracheal. I use a wheelchair to get around from place to place. While I can't be sure, had I never smoked a cigarette, I may not be where I am now.
Please, for the sake of yourself and your loved ones, do not smoke.
Gil In Colorado gil-c@webtv.net
Gil passed away on 4/9/01
He won't read it, education can be a dangerous thing. :-}
I also know many who were over weight and saved their lives by going on a diet. What next?
Fearless leader... Recently I found something that perfectly explains it...
"Why is it that people who know the least say it the loudest?"
Sorry...
I didn't know that that embarrassing option was not on your talking points list.
My favorite Orthopaedic Surgeon buddy (smoker) and I will have a few laughs discussing another legend in her own mind.
That was my opinion.
Is this "superior" dance...
I believe it was you who first assumed the superior stance by insinuating that smokers end up destitute, depending on the kindness of strangers to care for them.
See, even if you insult people indirectly, you have insulted them.
I would expect better than crybabying from such a superior life form.
Enjoy your life, you may live better.
Bah! Humbug!... someone somewhere is enjoying themselves...
*grumble* *mumble*...
Someone with such a moronic name is a superior life form?
And you would be a representative of "authority?"
I'll try to keep the words as small and simple as possible: I choose to assume the risks associated with smoking for the pleasure trade-off I experience. I do not now, nor have I ever believed, that I am immortal.
I do now, and always have, valued freedom over promises of safety and security.
I have always known that personal liberty trumps the tyranny of busybody, do-gooding strangers who inexplicably are deeply, deeply concerned about my well-being even though they don't know my name and have never met me.
In short, I would rather live my life than yours.
Get it?
Hyperbole.
Very good, SheLion!
They're the cancer eating the fabric of our formerly free society and they deserve eternal damnation.
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