Data on risk of second-hand smoke is 'circus of opinions'
Re: "The clear facts on second-hand smoke", Erik Bahrt and" "No smoke without stink", John Sheppard, Oct 23 Letters.
Erik (sic), as you seem to have a problem getting it straight on what I said, or what my point was, I will try one last time. I know that smoking dramatically increases ones chances at getting lung cancer. I have always acknowledged that. As for second-hand smoke, I looked into the same websites that you did and it is a circus of opinion with no hard numbers. Only this percentage and that percentage and “twenty one times more likely, or “forty times less likely”.
It is that way because no one really knows if second-hand smoke is causing cancer in non-smokers or not. They list smoking, diet, lack of exercise, second-hand smoke and air pollution, not to mention “radon gas” all as causes of lung cancer, with no hard figures until they reach the “second-hand smoke” category.
In other words, Erik, it’s all just so much BS and speculation. You choose to believe what you want to believe. I admit that I don’t know.
As for John Sheppard, he wants me to stick my mouth on the exhaust pipe of a truck. If I were to do that, just once, I would most certainly die, and that has been my point all along. Beyond that, I can only suggest that he cease running around sniffing smokers.
I smoke. It is dangerous for me, just as skiing, skydiving, over-eating, car racing and a hundred other pastimes are dangerous for the people who do them. The only difference is that all of those people are not punished by the govern-ment and non-skiing, racing, eating or skydiving public like smokers are. You might consider that.
John Arnone
