Liberty's Blog

Second Hand Smoke

Twice this week on the way to work I heard on the Radio a public service announcement claiming that secondhand second Hand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death. My Bullshit detector went off.

Smoking can be pretty detrimental to ones health, and the hazards to ones health are pretty solidly documented. Its also a fact that second hand smoke can cause health problems to asmatics, and those who allergic to it. There is no doubt that it bothers a lot of people. Burning eyes and sore throat are common. I am not crazy about cigarette smoke, and I smoke cigars. But the third most common cause of preventable deaths? What about aids, or violence, or even High blood pressure related deaths. It doesn't make sense. The first two causes of preventable death are smoking, and alcohol.

The break down is 3000 get cancer 53000 coronary and 2000 SIDs. Although I haven't looked up the sudden infant death research, the cancer and heart releated figures are definatly suspect. Dave Hitt has a good explaination on how the cancer figures had been achieved by the EPA, and how the study has been discredited, in particular by a WHO study. While Junk Science explains the holes in the the study that came up with the 50,000 coronary disease deaths.

Secondhand smoke may be a killer, its just that these figures are such a distortion that it's hard to believe anything that comes from the antismoking lobby. I was curious though, about how much some of the smokers where I work contribute to a hazzardous second handsmoke environment. I know I smoke almost exclusively outdoors. All 10 that I was able to ask claimed they never smoked in their homes. and they don't smoke inside at work. This is Texas, and I suspect that this isn't as true in the colder more unpleasant climates. I just found it intresting that these people weren't contributing much to second hand smoke health issues.

posted by Liberty @ 8:19 PM