Thirdhand Smoke Kills Brain Cells
I was originally going to write a blog entry about what a load of crap “secondhand smoke” is, but now that the Bush Administration’s answer to Joycelyn Elders Surgeon General has formally pronounced any and all debate on the subject to be “over,” I guess I’m not allowed to do that anymore. Thanks to commenter Anwyn for the inspiration.
UPDATE: Jacob Sullum’s take seems a bit more reasonable. Given the rag of a mag he writes for, that’s saying something.
UPDATE x2: Kevin Baker isn’t impressed, either.
June 28th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Can I say “WHAT A PILE OF HORSESHIT” here? Please? So what about fireplaces, barbecues, fire pits? Plains, trains and automobiles? I have no love for the tobacco companies. But I wonder whether the Surgeon General would prefer a) to sit with me inside my closed garage while I finish a cigarette (about seven minutes) or b) sit inside my closed garage with my car’s engine running for about seven minutes. He can have a drink in either case. (BTW: I do not smoke in an enclosed space of any kind with my four-year-old around. But then I haven’t had any guns in the house since she was born, either. It’s my choice, as a parent. An entirely different matter from a fascist nanny state saying that it loves my child more than I do.)
June 29th, 2006 at 1:28 am
Jacob Sullum does have it right. I grew up with a dad who smoked inside both the house and car, and as a musician with decent wind and good cords, I can’t say it affected me that much. Also, I was never sensitive to it until he quit, but now I can’t stand to be around it–that is to say, if a good friend wants to light up while we’re in the open air, I won’t wander off, but I avoid it in strangers and indoors. There are some people who can smoke all their lives and never get anything bad from it. There are some people (like Fiance’s mother) who can smoke most of their lives and end up with emphysema and on oxygen … and Fiance’s father, who had throat cancer and still smokes, although at Fiance’s diktat no longer around Fiance’s mother and her oxygen. Alas it is a crapshoot whether you have the former personal constitution or the latter.
It’s sad when science can be used as a typical liberal blanket statement that “everybody must do such-and-such.” That said, of course I don’t want anybody smoking around my two-year-old son, but I have serious principle issues with the government dictating the rules on private property. See also the wacky Smokedown on the Beach at Patterico’s. I hate smoking personally and believe it is an unwarranted encroachment on my body, which I don’t mind if the government wants to protect me from on public property, or my workplace wants to protect me from on private property, but it is a troubling expansion of government nevertheless.
June 29th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
What I found odd was the ABSOLUTE scientific proof that “there is no safe level of secondhand smoke” and that a mere whiff can kill. I really wish that his sources were cited for these claims, as they seem right out of the Weekly World News.
Also, see my blog about German non-smokers overwhelmingly opposing smoking restrictions.
August 27th, 2006 at 10:13 am
smoke from a cigarette or the smoke exhailed is toxic and contains toxic substances. more so than a fireplace..and you don’t drive your car inside your house or allow your children to stand by the car and breath the exhaust. Fireplaces are used to heat a home, cars are used to get you to work and your kids to school. Smoking is used for what? nothing necessary.
And don’t say “my parents smoked around me and I turned out fine”. Are you really “fine”? You’ll never know because you can’t step inside your body as it would be now if your parents didn’t smoke then. Sometimes the effect is suttle, just a few IQ points lower, slight increased risk of lung cancer, month or year off your life…How would your life be different if your parents were more health conscience? Your life would have gotten off to a better start, for one. Your attitude and views would be different obviously.
Never say “all-well” or “I turned out ok”. Make a stand against what is WRONG.
August 27th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
I do. Lying is wrong. It doesn’t become right just because it’s done for a good cause.