Dubious Second Hand Smoking Claims

By Brian Costin

Supposedly second hand smoke leads to cancer and other long term health implications, but the research drastically says otherwise. Of the over 33 different major studies about second hand smoking before 1993 more than 80% have shown no relation to second hand smoke and cigarette related fatalities, and many of the once that purported claims to show a correlation have been disproved as biased and scientifically not accurate.

Since then even more studies have debunked the second hand smoke health claims of anti-smoking groups. A 1998 American Cancer Society prevention study that included over 35,000 people who never smoked but had a spouse that smoked regularly. That study found that the “results do not support a causal relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality.  The American Cancer Society is one of the most ardent anti-smoking organizations in the United States but even they found that there was no link between secondhand smoke and tobacco related fatalities.

In 1998, the World Health Organization published the largest study ever done on secondhand smoke and lung cancer. The study reported no statistically significant association between secondhand smoke and lung cancer.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examining data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reported in the January 2001 Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine there was no association between secondhand smoke and asthma among 5,400 children aged 4 to 16 years of age.

Nonsmokers argue that smoking in public places is annoying. I agree. But under no circumstances should private businesses be forced to sacrifice their individual liberties and property rights because their smoking policies annoy certain patrons. 

January 18th, 2005