Secondhand Smoke Isn't As Bad As They Say

Early this morning while I was getting ready for work I turned on the TV and was tuned into MAXXX, where they were showing Penn & Teller's Bullshit, a TV show that puts the spotlight on bogus stuff.On this particular show they talked about second-hand smoke, and as it turns out secondhand smoke is not nearly as dangerous as we were lead to believe. A federal court lambasted the EPA for the report that almost everyone uses to justify smoking bans (In 1993, EPA released a study ranking passive smoking at the top of its carcinogen pecking order), saying they cherry-picked data and basically just did what they had to do to come up with the results they wanted.Also, they got scientist after scientist to come on and say that there really isn't any good data linking second-hand smoke to increased cancer risks. According to EPA’s report, 2nd hand smoking increases your risk of getting lung cancer my 25%, when the actual data shows the following:

Those exposed to second-hand smoke - 12 deaths per 1,000,000
Those not exposes to second-hand smoke - 10 deaths per 1,000,000

EPA also claims that 50,000 people die every year because of 2nd hand smoke, but according to the show this number was incorrect because 2,000 people die because of lung cancer and there’s no proof that it was second hand smoke that caused the cancer to start. Penn and Teller said that the 50,000 statistical figure came from an age bracket, where people die because of heat diseases, and all those other stuff that you hear about. We may think that this is just one study that was ruled as bogus and there are other warnings from the “Surgeon General” and what have you, but according to the show they all based their warnings on the study that EPA did in 1993.

Ok, I an not saying that you should go ahead and grab a cigarette and smoke till you get dizzy, I am just saying that I am disappointed because we were mislead much like a child who was told not to stray away from his parents because a ghost might abduct him. People who smoke aren’t babies and they should be treated like adults who can think and decide for themselves.

For more information you can go to this site - http://www.sepp.org/Archive/reality/pseudosci.html