“My friends, there’s now a second medical study which confirms that secondhand smoke doesn’t kill. Not only does it not kill, it doesn’t do much damage.” -Rush Limbaugh
And then you woke up Rushie. Staunch conservatives like Limbaugh are pleased as peanut pie at a new study that (as seen above) they say proves that secondhand smoke is pretty much harmless.
Any logical thinker knows this is impossible.
Philip Morris Tobacco company itself says the following about second hand smoke on it’s website (philipmorrisusa.com): “Public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke from cigarettes causes disease, including lung cancer and heart disease, in non-smoking adults, as well as causes conditions in children such as asthma, respiratory infections, cough, wheeze, otitis media (middle ear infection) and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In addition, public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke can exacerbate adult asthma and cause eye, throat and nasal irritation.”
So the tobacco makers admit the harmful effects of smoking…but the tobacco smokers say they’re lying? I don’t get it.
Of course, not all Tobacco distributors feel the same way, and the industry in general defends smoking and second hand smoke whenever possible, so this thing from Philip Morris might be an advisory requirement or court ordered thing or who knows.
Still Philip Morris doesn’t back out of it’s statement or spin their position at all. They consistantly conclude that “Philip Morris USA believes that the conclusions of public health officials concerning environmental tobacco smoke are sufficient to warrant measures that regulate smoking in public places. We also believe that where smoking is permitted, the government should require the posting of warning notices that communicate public health officials’ conclusions that secondhand smoke causes disease in non-smokers.”
It’s like saying that licking someone else’s bacon grease is harmless to your health. Technically, it is. And if that is the conclusion you want to come to, it is not difficult to spin some research into making such a deduction.
For instance, it is quite possible to eat greasy oily foods and not suffer any immediate health problem. You could have a targeted diet that allows the intake of such foods, or you could just be lucky and have a working system that doesn’t noticeably debilitate until a certain point. – But not everyone is so lucky. So is it thus fair to force everyone around you either lick your bacon grease or leave your area???
Of course not. Yet this is exactly the argument being made by indignant conservatives who think smoking wherever they want is their ‘right.’
These are the same conservatives that wag their fingers at the equally stupid liberal cries over so called civil liberties that can include anything from the ‘right’ to transvestites getting a special bathroom to the ‘right’ to halt traffic for the rest of the world while you protest in the streets, depending on how nutty you are.
These judgments need an injection of common sense and critical thinking instead of the current “what I feel like doing is my right” emotion driven logic.
Sucking smoke filled chemical sticks is your right. Bringing it to other people by polluting the shared air supply is not. Second hand smoke is bothersome to most non-smokers, but more importantly affects their health. The chemicals within can sting the eyes, personally give me a headache and are an asthmatics nightmare.
Whether it can be without a doubt scientifically proven or not that second hand smoke will cause cancer and lung disease, just bringing the discomfort to everyone around you is not anyone’s right.
The fact that this new study was funded by the Tobacco industry may or may not have anything to do with the conclusion, but is a noteworthy point to mention.
