Secondhand lies
Letter to the editor
Copyright 1998 Detroit News
September 16, 1998
Homer Read of the American Lung Association of Michigan, in his Sept. 2
rebuttal, "Secondhand smoke's documented danger," finds it "hard to
believe with all of the credible information available, The News was still able
to write its Aug. 7 editorial,
"EPA: Smoke and Mirrors." But there is no credible material indicating any valid association between
secondhand smoke and primary health risks.
Sadly, it took a district court
judge to expose what hundreds of scientists and statisticians have been saying
for five years: The Environmental Protection Agency
"cooked the books" in its corrupt
"study" on
secondhand smoke.
Reed continues with an ad hominem attack on Judge William Osteen, implying that
the tobacco industry
"found one
judge to side with it." Osteen is a highly respected jurist. This is the same judge who ruled that the
Food and Drug Administration could regulate cigarette content -- a decision
recently overturned.
Like others involved in the heavily funded anti-tobacco movement, Reed makes a
habit of
using misleading, inaccurate statements to imply that certain
"facts" are indisputable. It is important to understand that government-sponsored
"research" should be viewed with equal or greater skepticism than industry-sponsored
research.
For example, of the famous 400,000 deaths
"attributable to smoking," more than 192,000 are people over age 75. Of these, more than
71,600 are over age 85. Since U.S. life expectancy is not much greater than 75,
nearly half of these deaths are gratuitously included to make smoking appear to
be a greater risk than it actually is.
Of the remaining 208,000 deaths, many of the causes attributed to smoking are
questionable at best and
simply silly in many cases. They disregard confounding factors such as
heredity, obesity, diabetes or congenital anomalies.
There is no doubt that smoking is a health risk. It is not, however, any
greater a risk than obesity, inactivity, poor nutrition or low socioeconomic
status. The
secondhand smoke scare is
simply a political ploy.
Anne Fennell
Austin, Texas
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